THE Apostle, the great As­serter of Free-Grace, in the 20 ^th Verse, compares the Church to a Temple: And it is his design in this Epi­stle to shew the Influence Grace hath to the raising of this Building. He undertakes to prove, that the whole Structure of Salvation is to be attributed alone to Grace.

The Foundation was laid from Eternity by Grace in Election, Chap. 1. 4, 5. The polishing and disposing of each particular Stone in the Building, by Justification and Sanctification, were all acts of Grace; Chap. 1. 7. & 2. 5. & 4. 13, 14. And it is Grace that lays on the Top-stone in Glory; Chap. 2. 6. So that we may honour this Temple with the same Acclamations, which they used to theirs, Zach. 4. 7. and cry Grace, grace, unto it. The summ of the whole Discourse is propounded in the Text, By Grace ye are saved.

We will not divide what God from Eter­nity has joined together, Grace and Salva­tion: But from them intirely taken, offer you this

We need go no further for divine Testi­mony to this Truth, than these two Chap­ters. Election, Chap. 1. 4, 5. Redemption, ver. 7. Vocation, ver. 16. Justification, Chap. 2. ver. 3, 4. Sanctification, ver. 5. Glorification, ver. 6. What he speaks of the whole here, he affirms of every part thereof in those places. The whole and all the parcels are of Grace.

For Explication. By Salvation, under­stand both the Decree of God, by which the Elect were ordained to Salvation, and the Execution of that Decree, begun here, and consummated in glory.

That we may know what Grace means, take notice of three words, used promiscu­ously in Scripture, which yet admit of some distinction; the knowledge whereof will lead us to the distinct knowledge of this term. These are Love, Mercy, Grace.

To Love, is velle bonum, to will the Happiness of the Object loved. It is not in God such an affection as in us, though in effect it proves affectus unionis, and brings God and his People together.

Mercy does velle bonum miseris. So it adds a Limitation to the Object, which Love leaves indefinite. It is for those that are miserable.

Grace does velle bonum liberè. So this limits not the Object, as the former, but qualifies the Act. It acts freely.

So that Mercy is Love to those that are miserable. Grace is Love in him that is unobliged. Unobliged, I say, either by Necessity, Merit, or Motive. Grace then, in God, is nothing but free Love.

1. Free in respect of Constraint; when there is no necessity he should fix his Love [Page 4] upon this Object at all, or upon this rather than another. This is spontaneum.

2. Free in respect of Merit; when there is nothing in the Object that deserves Love, either absolutely or comparatively, this is gratuitum.

3. Free in respect of Motive; when there is nothing in the Object to move this Affection to pitch upon it at all, or upon it rather than another. This is liberum, tho' it express it not fully.

In all these respects, the Grace of God in bestowing Salvation upon any of the Sons of men, is free Love.

1. There's no Necessity God should save men. He is a most free Agent, whose liber­ty is inconsistent with every degree of Ne­cessity ab extra. It was in his choice either to have created no man, or to have con­demned all men, or to have saved those who are now condemned.

2. There is nothing in Man that can me­rit Salvation: for there is no good thing in him that he can call his own. All is of Gift; and the best thing in man bears no proportion to Salvation: but where there is Merit, there must be both Propriety and Proportion.

3. There is nothing in Man can move God to save him. If any thing, his Misery; [Page 5] but this is no Motive absolutely, because▪ it is wilfull. Man willingly involved himself in it, and is unwilling to be delivered from it upon the terms propounded in the Go­spel. Nor can it be a Motive comparative­ly, to save one man rather than another, because all are by nature equally miserable.

So then Salvation is by Grace, because it is a gift of free Love to such in whom there▪ can be nothing to inforce it, nothing to deserve it, nor any thing to move him to bestow it.

The Demonstrations are drawn from God, from Man.

From Man. The Impotency, Deformity, Enmity of man against God, makes it evi­dent, that Salvation must be wholly, on­ly from Grace.

1. Impotency. What a poor despicable creature is Man! the best of men! What a wonder the great God should think of saving him! His rise was from the Earth. He is but at best Dust and Ashes, a poor piece of Clay. He dwells in houses of Clay. His Foundation is in the dust, and is crushed by the Moth, Job 4. 19. A stately thing sure which the very Moth can crush, and crumble into his first principle, Dust.

The most potent victorious King, that ever Israel had, puts a Worm amongst his [Page 6] titles, Ps. 22. 6. I am a Worm. The great­est man in the East derives his Pedigree no higher; I have said to corruption, thou art my Father, and to the Worm thou art my Mother and my Sister, Job 17. 14. And if the greatest men on earth, who best understood themselves, were no greater in their own account; what do we think men are in Gods account? The numerous posterity of Jacob have no greater Title, Isa. 41. 14. Fear not, worm Jacob: and if that vast multitude, which was like the Stars of the Heavens, and the Sands on the Sea-shore, which cannot be numbred, be but as one Worm in his eye; what do we think is one Man?

But we are too high yet. Men in the account of God, compared with him, are not so much as Worms. Absolutely, in them­selves, they are more; but compared with him not so much, Isa. 40. 22. It is he that sitteth upon the Circle of the Earth, and the Inhabitants thereof are as Grass-hoppers; this is something less than Worms; yet less in his eye, than these in ours.

But we yet go lower. Worms and Grass-hoppers, tho' most despicable, are yet animate Beings; and the soul of the least Creature, in Augustins account, is more excellent than the Body of the Sun. This is too high yet; [Page 7] What then are men in Gods esteem? see ver. 15. The Nations are as the drop of a Bucket, and are accounted as the small dust of the Ballance: behold he takes up the Isles as a very little thing. What? all the Na­tions of the Earth as one drop? As an Atom? What proportion then do ye think we bear to this drop, to this Atom, who are but as drops and Atoms in compari­son of all the Nations of the Earth.

Sure now we are low enough. Our thoughts can scarce go lower. I, but stay, we are not in Gods account thus much. A drop, an Atom is something, tho a very lit­tle thing. But Ver. 17. All Nations be­fore him are as nothing. Alas, where are we then, so near the low condition of Non-entity? Yes, and lower too; for it fol­lows, and they are accounted to him less than nothing.

See then what Man is in Gods account, as less than that which is less than nothing. And can you imagine any thing in this Nothing, man, that should oblige the great God to save him? O, sure it is Grace, free Love; and such as may astonish Heaven and Earth; that the great God, who measures the Seas in the hollow of his Hand, who spans the Heavens, and weighs the Moun­tains, should condescend to do thus much [Page 8] for any of these poor despicable nothings: should contrive their Salvation from Eter­nity, and send his Son, the Son of his Love, of his delight, to procure it with his Blood, and then admit them to an eternal injoyment of himself in Glory.

2. The Deformity of man as he is sinful. We shewed before, man was Nothing, less than nothing, in the sight of God. Now we will shew, he is worse than nothing; even a deformed nothing, or rather no­thing but Deformity.

'Tis true, by Creation he was a beauti­ful Creature, mo [...]lded after the Image of the first Beauty, bearing the superscripti­on of God. He was then as a bright Morning Star, when he first appeared in the World. But he forthwith fell from his primitive station, the Orb of Innocency: He fell from thence into the Puddle of sin, into thick mire and clay, as the Psalmist. Psal. 40. 2. And being drenched in sin, he became more deformed and abominable in the eye of God, than that which is most loathsom to us. The vail of Light and Holiness, wherewith he was Beautified, be­ing torn off the Soul, Sin besmeared it with ugly filthiness and pollution. The divine Light and Holiness, which shined in his Soul, is vanished; and Darkness and [Page 9] Deformity has seized on him, and over­spread him. Holiness was the moral Form of the Soul; but now sin gives it morally both its being and denomination. So that, what may be said of sin in the abstract, as that it is Deformity, Pollution, Filthiness, may be said of man in the concrete, he is deformed, filthy, polluted. We have cause to complain of this woful change, in the words, of the Prophet, with a little vari­ation, Isa. 3. 24. Instead of a sweet smell, there is a stink, instead of well-set hair bald­ness, and Deformity instead of Beauty.

Sin has left neither [...] nor [...] in the Souls of sinners, neither Proportion nor good Complexion. The Fall put all out of joynt, and left the Soul blind, lame, crooked, diseased, nay dead in sins, &c. These are the familiar Epithets which Scrip­ture gives our sinful state.

The Visage of the Soul is loathsomly be­spotted. Nor has Sin brought upon it simple Deformity alone; but, which is worse, Uncleanness, such as is compared to that of a removed Woman, Ezek. 36. 17. Nay the best thing that is in it, or proceeds from it, is but as a menstruous rag, Isa. 54.

I, but thô this be noisom and unpleasing, yet there's no danger, no Infection in it. O but sin is a contagious Pollution, 'tis like a [Page 10] Plague-fore in the heart, an infectious Le­prosy; it will diffuse its malignity like the poyson of Asps.

I, but if a man be visited with the Plague or Leprosy, he seems rather an object of compassion, than detestation; rather to be pitied than loathed. Go yet one step further.

Sin is not only contagious, but a loath­som noisom Filthiness. The Holy Ghost compares it to the stench of an open Se­pulchre, to the Vomit of a Dog, to the cor­rupted matter of a putrified Ulcer. Such is the temper of a Soul by sin.

I'll go no further. It may be the hear­ing of these is offensive; how much more to see, smell, or touch them. Yet a sinful man is more ugly in the Eye, more offen­sive to the Nostrils, more loathsom to the Lord, than any of these can be to the quickest or most delicate of our Senses.

Alas, wretched Man! how justly maist thou or I speak, what Mephibosheth uses in complement to David, 2 Sam. 9. 8. What is thy servant, that thou shouldst look on such a dead Dog as I am?

Can any Soul expect, that such a Mon­ster as this should be the Object of any ones Love, much less of Gods? How hope­less may mans Salvation seem, if we [Page 11] look on him in this state! What! is the eternal Love of God, the precious Blood of Christ, for such a Wretch as this! Is there any thing in him, in us, to merit, to move Love? Who would not rather think, every son of Adam should with indignation be kickt out of the presence of so holy a God? Sure if there be any hopes, it must be from Grace, free Love, and such as could no where be entertained but in the breast of infinite Goodness.

3. The Enmity of sinners against God, this makes it evident beyond all exception. The Impotency and Deformity of man, in the state of sin, shews there is nothing lovely in him; but if there were not, yet if he had any love for God, this love, without any other consideration, might be some inducement to move the Lord to love him; and so his love might seem less free, as having some motive from without.

But the case is otherwise. As there is nothing Lovely in him, so neither is there any Love to God; nay there is a high de­gree of Hatred and Enmity.

The Wisdom of the Flesh, the very best thing in man, is Enmity to God, Rom. 8. 7. And this Enmity is manifested in contra­dicting the Will of God, and running cross [Page 12] to his Commands: for if this be our love to God, as the Apostle says, that we keep his Commands, 1 Joh. 5. 3. then this is Hatred of God, that we will not keep them.

And this Disobedience of a Sinner pro­ceeds from his Hatred of the God that commands, and not only of that which is commanded, yea rather from that than this. For what Sinner is there, who does not believe, that what the Law commnds is Just in it self and good for us?

So that the Enmity reaches God him­self. Who is the Lord, says the sinner in his heart, that I should obey him?

Further, Sinners revolt from God, and conspire with his greatest Enemy, joyn in confederacy with Satan. They, (as those in Isa. 28. 15.) have made a Cove­nant with Hell; and with Death are they at agreement. They give up their mem­bers as Weapons of Ʋnrighteousness, to fight against God, Rom. 6. 19. It is the condition of all, by nature. Every Sinner, before the Lord conquer him by his Grace, is at open enmity with God, and does in effect bid defiance to the Almighty. The acts of his life are acts of Hostility against God. Nor is it a defensive war only, that would be more excuseable; but the design [Page 13] is, not to secure himself only, but to put down God, and divest him of his Sove­raignty. This is the voice of their Hearts and Lives, We will not have this God to rule over us. Sin, where it reigns, does as much as is in its power to depose the Soveraign Lord of the World. It denies in effect that he is God: For that which de­nies his essential Perfections and Attributes, does deny him to be God. He that gives up himself to sin, denies in a manner all his divine Excellencies, his Goodness, Wisdom, Power, Justice, Mercy, Immen­sity, Psal. 50. 21. He would not go on in sin, if he did not say in his heart that he is not the Chief Good; because sin de­prives him of this Good, cuts him off from the Injoyment of it: or else he be­lieves not that it will deprive him of the chief Good, and so denies his Truth, who has affirmed and declared it; and not be­lieving him herein makes him a Liar.

He durst not sin, but that he thinks God is not present to see him; and if so, he denies his Immensity. Or if he see him, he thinks he cannot punish him; and so denies his Power. Or if he be able, yet he thinks he will not punish him; and so de­nies his Justice. He would not turn aside to other ways than he prescribes, but that [Page 14] he thinks he either cannot direct him in the best way, and so denies his Wisdom; or that he will not direct him to the best, and so denies his Mercy. And thus much we might shew of the other Divine Per­fections, how it tends to deface them all.

Lo here the horrid Enmity of Sin and Sinners against God. They deny he is God; call him, constructively and in effect, a finite, a weak, a foolish, a false, an un­just and unmercifull thing.

'Tis true, Sinners cannot do what they say and wish in their hearts. They have not Power to undeifie God, or to deprive him of his Divine Perfections; but this does not lessen nor excuse their Enmity against him: For it is true in evil, as well as in good, Where there is a willing mind, it is accounted as if it were done.

O the horrid nature of Sin! Be asto­nished, O Heavens, and be ye horribly afraid at this Prodigious Enmity, which is in the Hearts of Sinners against God. Why is thy wrath restrained? O Lord; Why does not thy Indignation break forth, and destroy all Sinners from off the face of the Earth? Nay, why was not Heaven and Earth annihilated at the first appearance of such horrid Treason, of such desperate Enmity?

But we have not yet discovered the height of this Enmity. What is the rea­son, that a Sinner should thus set himself against God? It may be, he despairs of Salvation, while the Almighty rules; and therefore the desire of his own Happiness may be the cause of this opposition; and so it will not be pure Enmity, but some Principle of self-love, that may make him so desperate.

It is no such matter; it is not Salvation that he cares for. He sets himself against God; not out of any respect to secure his own well-being. For whom would he ad­vance into the place of God? 'Tis the great enemy of his Salvation, Satan, 2 Cor. 4. 4. 'Tis he, who by the consent of Sinners is the God of this world; 'tis he they would have to rule in and over them, Eph. 2. 2. They are Children of obedience to him, but of disobedience to God, and will be so, tho' they perish for it.

Here then is the height of the Sinners Enmity against God. They had rather pe­rish Eternally under the Soveraignty of Satan, than be happy in subjection to the Scepter of God. Nay, sinners would persist in the height of this Enmity, and therefore reject all motions of Reconciliati­on, tho' the Lord condescend to beseech [Page 16] them, with all moving arguments, to be re­conciled, 2 Cor. 5. 20. They despise Sal­vation, and the means that tend to it. They manifested it, by crucifying the Lord of Life, when he came on purpose into the world to bring Salvation. Come, say they, this is the Heir, Mat. 21. 38. We cannot reach the Father, he is too far above us; but we have a fair occasion to shew how well we wish him. This is the Heir, here is his Son, his only Son, the Son of his Love and Delight, come let us kill him: and so they did; and so would other Sinners do, if they were in the same circumstances with those that did it. And there are those, who Crucifie again the Lord of Life. And what do we less in venturing upon ways of sin? since this is it which first crucified him. This is the desperate disposition of all Sinners in the state of nature. We had so continued to Eternity, if the power of Grace had not broke in upon us, and drawn us to terms of Reconciliation.

And this being our State and temper naturally, can you think there was any thing in us, that could have moved the Lord to save us? What? can Hatred, such desperate Enmity, such prodigious Malice against the Lord, move him to love us? [Page 17] O, if free Grace had not moved it self, we had persisted in our opposition against the Lord; and had been eternally miserable, as those deserve to be, who are found fighters against God, and open Enemies to him.

There are other Demonstrations, that Salvation is of Grace only, which may be drawn from God himself; the conside­ration of his Allsufficiency, Soveraignty.

(1.) The Allsufficiency and independency of God. He stood in no need at all of man, either for Happiness or Glory, the least degree of either. He had been eter­nally as happy, as glorious, if man had never been, or been ever miserable.

1. In respect of Happiness. He was perfectly, infinitely happy without us. He did not expect, he could not have the least Degree of it from us. All de­grees, all Fulness of it was in himself, before we had a being. The Divine Un­derstanding was infinitely pleased and sa­tisfied in the Contemplation of himself, the first Truth. The divine Will took in­finite contentment and complacency in the injoyment of himself, the chief Good. The Object here was infinite and glori­ous Excellencies; and the Acts were infi­nitely perfect; and the Issue thereof must [Page 18] needs be infinite Happiness, both formal and objective. Christ, the Eternal Wisdom of the Father, thus expresseth it, Prov. 8▪ 22. 30. Here are the mutual delights of the Father and the Son; those injoy­ments, which hold forth the highest de­gree of Happiness, before any creature had being. The Son was the Fathers De­lights [...] daily, every moment, without the least intermission; and rejoyced, the word is [...] was laughing before his face. Those happy souls, who are already ad­mitted into the glorious Presence, may guess, tho not comprehend, what happi­ness there is in those delights: we are in the dark, and can neither express nor con­ceive how much it is; but tho we can­not conceive how great that Happiness is, we may easily apprehend, that it cannot be made greater by any creature.

Besides, Happiness must arise from Uni­on with some good, or the injoyment of it. Now all Goodness in Perfection, is included in the divine Being; and what­ever good is in the creature, it is but an imperfect participation of that Primitive Goodness, or rather but a dim resemblance of it. And shall we think that there can be any addition to his Happiness from that which is so imperfectly without him, [Page 19] when all Excellencies are perfectly, emi­nently, infinitely in himself? Shall the Ocean of Blessedness seek an increase from that which is less than a Drop? Or the Sun of Glory borrow lustre from a Glow­worm, a dim Spark? Or the Universe of all Happiness greaten it self by a Point, a Mote? No, the Lord was Blessed for ever, before man was in being; and he had been Blessed for ever, if man had ne­ver been. And if nothing had moved the Lord to save him, but a design to add to his own Happiness, none of the Children of men had ever known Salvation.

2. In respect of Glory. The Lord does not depend upon man more for Glory, than Happiness. He had been as Glori­ous, if we had continued in the State of Non-entity, or if we had Perished in our Sin, and sunk into Misery. It's true, we say the Lord glorifies his Mercy in our Salvation; but this is such a Glory as he might have wanted, and yet have been no less Glorious. To clear this a little. The Glory of God is Essential or Relative. Gods Essential Glory is those infinitely glorious Perfections and Excellencies which meet in the Divine Essence. This is that Glory, which no mortal eye ever saw, or can see. When Moses desired to see [Page 20] his Glory, the Lord says to him, Thou canst not see my face and live, Exod. 33. 18, 20. The [...]ace is the Seat of Beauty, where all the lines of Perfection do concenter, where all the rays of Glory are united. These we can no more behold in his face, than a lump of Snow can sustain the uni­ted vigor of the Sun-beams at noon day.

When the Queen of Sheba had seen the Glory of Solomon, it's said there was no spi­rit in her, 1 King. 10. 5. The Soul, or Spirit in her (as in others) has a strong inclination to unite with that which it apprehends to be most good; and behold­ing something transcendently better with­out, than in the Body, seemed willing for that time to leave the Body, that it might enjoy and close with what was more excellent. If the Lord should unvail himself, and let us have a clear sight of his glorious Excellencies, as they shine in himself; the Soul would leave the Body, the Union between them would be dis­solved; the spirit would be wrapt away with such a sight, and leave the Body dead. This may be the reason of what the Lord said to Moses; No man can see my face, i. e. my Essential Glory, and live.

Further, the Essential Glory of God is God himself, and therefore both Infinite [Page 21] and Eternal. It is Infinite as he is, and to that which is Infinite nothing can be added, it can no way be greater than it is already. It is Eternal too, and so be­fore any thing was created, and conse­quently no way dependant on the Crea­tures. By which it is manifest, that es­sential Glory is not at all increased by working mans Salvation

For Relative Glory, that indeed depends on the Creatures. But the Lord had been as glorious in himself, if this Glory had never been, as will appear from the Na­ture of it. The essential Attributes of God are his divine Perfections, absolutely existing, without respect or relation to the Creatures. Relative Attributes are those essential Perfections, as manifested to the Creatures, or rather the Manife­station of them. If then Essential Glory be the lustre of those essential Attributes, as shining in the divine Essence, which we shewed before, it must follow, that Relative Glory is that which results from the Manifestation of those Perfections to the Creatures. For example, Relative Mercy is the Manifestation of essential Goodness in the Salvation of the Elect; and Relative Justice is the Manifestation of essential Righteousness or Justice in [Page 22] the Condemnation of the Reprobate.

Now God had been as glorious in him­self, if he had never made known his Mercy or Justice to the World, if there had been no World, no Creatures made, to manifest these to, if there had been no Men or Angels to take notice of them. For, is the Sun made more splendid or beautiful by our beholding of it? No, it would be as glorious, if no Eye ever saw it. Did the Israelites eating Manna add any sweetness to that pleasant food? no sure, it had been as sweet in it self, if no Palate had ever tasted it. Even so the Lord had been as powerful, if he had ne­ver created the World; no less merciful in himself, if he had never saved any, if there had been none to save; no less righ­teous, if there had been none to condemn, if he had never condemned any.

But because this may seem strange, and some may stick at it, let me add a Rea­son for it. The Manifestation of his At­tributes to the World is a free Act, a transient Act. It is a certain rule in Di­vinity, Quicquid Deus operatur ad extra liberè fit; every Act of God terminated on the Creatures, is a free Act. A free Act is that which may be done or not done. So that it was in the choice of [Page 23] the Divine Will (before it had determi­ned it self) to manifest Mercy, or not to shew it; to save man, or not to save him, to make him, or not. But if Salva­tion did add any thing to the Glory▪ of God, our Salvation had been a necessary, and not a free Act; because without it the Lord had wanted some degree of Glo­ry, and so had not been most glorious, most perfectly so, and consequently not himself.

Hence it is evident, that the Lord did not stand in need of our Salvation, to make him more glorious any way. He was infinitely glorious from Eternity; but these Manifestations of himself are in time, therefore can add nothing to his Glory, which was infinite before all time. The reason why he revealed his Mercy in saving man, was not because this was needful to make himself more glorious. We must, as Christ shewed us, find the reason of it in his [...], the good plea­sure of his Will, Mat. 11. 25, 26. [...]; this was the reason of it, Thy good pleasure. And to this the Apostle leads us, Eph. 1. 5, 9.

'Tis true also, we are said to glorifie God by our Services, by the Acts and Exercises of Holiness, Psal. 50. 23. and [Page 24] Joh. 15. 8. But how is this to be understood? even as he is said to glorifie him self, when he manifests to us that he is glorious. So we are said to glorifie him, wh [...]n we acknowledge that he is Glorious, when we give a testimony to his glori­ous Perfections by word or deed. But neither his Manifestation, nor our Acknow­ledgment, does add to his Glory. He shews it, we take notice of it, but nei­ther of these imports any addition to it. Hence Psal. 16. 2. My goodness extendeth not to thee. If our Apprehensions of God were as high as their Object; if our Af­fection to him were more than that of the Angels; if all our Prayers and Prai­ses were Raptures, and all our Perfor­mances serued up to the highest degree of Perfection that a created being is ca­pable of: yet were we in this respect un­profitable Servants; the Lord upon this ac­count would have no advantage by us: for as Eliphaz says to Job, Ch. 22. 2, 3. Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righ­teous? &c. No, the Lord may glorifie us, but he gains no glory by us, that is any advantage to him. He stands in no need of us to glorifie him; he had been as glo­rious [Page 25] if we had perished, or if we had been nothing. Therefore what Motive can there be in or from us, to oblige him to save us?

(2.) The Soveraignity and Dominion of God over his Creatures. As in respect of his Alsufficiency, he stands in no need of us; so in respect of his Soveraignty he ows us nothing; he is no way ingaged to us, or obliged by us: but may do what he will with us, either to save or not to save us. So it stands with us clearly, if we consider his Dominion over us, in an­tecedence to his Purpose and Promise.

1. For he might have been satisfied in the sole injoyment of his blessed self, and never have vouchsafed a Being, much less Salvation and Glory, to any Creature.

2. Or if he would manifest himself to the Creatures, he might have formed more excellent Creatures, and more fit to be the Objects of his great and transcendent Love: for he did not act as a natural Agent ad ultimum sui posse, to the utmost of all his Power.

3. Or if the Divine Will would deter­mine it self to give a Being to those very Creatures that are now existent; yet there was no necessity that he should save any of them. He might have anni­hilated [Page 26] them, without any shew of Un­righteousnes: For who can say unto the King of Kings, What dost thou? Dan. 4. 35. might he not do with his own what he will?

4. Or if he would manifest his Love and Goodness in the Salvation of any that he had Created; yet who would not think all the Angels (those sometimes glorious Creatures) more capable of it, than any of the Children of men?

5. Or if unworthy Man must be the Subject of it; yet why so many men? He might have made fewer Vessels of Mercy, than are now formed by it, to be for eve [...] filled with it.

6. Or if he would pitch upon so many▪ yet why upon th [...]se who are now set apar [...] for Salvation, rather than those who are past by? Why are these chosen, and the other left? Why are these Vessels of Ho­nour rather than the rest, when all were of the same Clay, formed by the sam [...] hand? Rom. 9. 25. There's no Reason ca [...] be given, but his good pleasure, his mee [...] Grace. And, O what beams of this glo­rious Grace do break forth from this Con­sideration! What! must Men be chose [...] from all other Creatures to be the Object [...] of Gods peculiar Love? Will the Lord [Page 27] vouchsafe the eternal Enjoyment of Him­self to none but Men alone of all lapsed Creatures? Lord! what is Man that thou art mindfull of him, or the Son of Man that thou visitest him!

And how exceedingly does this endear Free Grace, that any of us should be sepa­rated from the rest of perishing Sinners; that we should be Vessels of Mercy, when others are Vessels of Wrath! Lord, what are we, or what are our Fathers? Why hast thou revealed thy self to us, and not to the World? Even so, Lord, because it pleased thee? No other Reason can be assigned, but meer Grace. There needs no more, to demonstrate that Salvation is to be ascri­bed to Grace only.

1 Ʋse. This condemns their Doctrine, who will have us saved rather by Free-Will, than by Grace; which will have the Text inverted, and read thus: By Free-will are ye saved, not by Grace, but of your selves.

This has too many Patrons, and those of greatest Name and Ability amongst the Opposers of Truth. It's the capital Errour of the Remonstrants, the Foundation of their other Opinions that concern Grace, and with which they all stand or fall. [Page 26] [...] [Page 27] [...] [Page 28] The Socinians, and the worst among the Papists, the Jesuits, joyn with them, all following Pelagius, condemned by the an­cient Church as the Enemy of the Grace of Christ.

That we may the better understand them, and what in them is to be condem­ned and avoided, let us see, (1.) What Grace they own and count sufficient: for something they must own under this no­tion, who will not plainly renounce the Gospel. (2.) What they ascribe to Free­will. (3.) What is the Tendency of their Principles. (4.) What they object against the Doctrine of Free-Grace.

I. For the first. They count no Grace necessary to bring a Sinner into a saving State, and continue him in it; but that which they call Morall Grace or Swasion. This consists in a presenting of the Ob­ject to the Will, with Motives and Argu­ments to embrace it. Or thus, in a Pro­posal of our Duty, with rational Conside­rations to move him to yield to it, leaving us to do as we please. For Example, To turn from sin to God, and to Believe in Christ, are Duties propounded in the Go­spel; the advantage of yielding hereto, and the danger of refusing, is there decla­red; [Page 29] and so it is left to the Sinners choice, whether he will comply or no.

This is all the Grace which the Lord affords to save us. It amounts to no more than a moral Excitement, or a rational Pro­posal. This Proposal is made with some light, tending to excite Affection. If it were altogether in the dark, it would be in effect no Proposal. Whether this Light be natural, or supernatural, they are not agreed. Som [...], and those most followed, would have the Light of natural Reason sufficient. Others would rather have it counted a Light from the Spirit. But all agree, that it is no special Illumination, but a common Light, vouchsafed to all un­der the Gospel; and so such as those have, who live and dye in the gross Darkness of Ignorance and Wickedness, they must not by their Principles deny to Heathens. And those, who will have it called the Light of the Spirit, count it as weak and powerless as natural Light, i. e. of no more power and efficacy to determine or sway the Will, than the Light of Reason; no, nor so much as some Dictates of Reason are commonly thought to have. The dif­ference is so little (if there be any) as to the thing it self, that those who call it the Light of the Spirit, seem but to give [Page 30] it that Name and Title, to decline the Odium of ascribing nothing at all to the Spirit of Grace. However a common pro­posal, with such light, made in the Go­spel unto Sinners, is all the Grace which they count needful.

1. They deny eternal Grace, i. e. all Free Mercy in God to any particular per­sons from Eternity. According to them, he had no Mercy, no purpose of it for any, but what he was obliged to by the foresight of the good use of Free-will. This is no Free Mercy, and so no Grace.

2. They deny all habitual Grace, which is not of our selves. They will have no such thing wrought in us by the Spirit of Holiness. All gracious Qualities or Principles, planted in the Heart by the Spirit, they reject under the notion of infused habits.

3. They deny actual Grace, i. e. any operation of the Spirit to determine the Will. All gracious influences whatever that will or can certainly incline it to act, or incline it any more to act than not to act. Grace, with them, only pro­poses to the Will, and leaves the deter­mination to it self; it must be left indif­ferent to act, or not to act, as it likes.

No other Grace, than this of propo­sing; [Page 31] none, habitual or actual, was de­signed for any Person in the eternal Coun­sel of God, or purchased for any by the Blood of Christ, or administred to any by the Spirit of Grace. It is enough that it be propounded to the Will to turn to God, and Arguments offered to that pur­pose, such as the Gospel contains, and are managed in the Ministry of it. So that all the Grace, which they count necessa­ry, is no special, sufficient Grace.

1. It is no special, but only common Grace, afforded equally to those that are damned, as to any that are saved. No other Grace, than that which suffers the far greatest part of those who partake of it to perish eternally. That Grace, where­with any man may be damned, as soon as saved. If any be saved in their way, it is without special Grace. It is ten to one, for any Grace the Lord vouch­safes to Sinners, they will never be sa­ved.

2. It is not sufficient Grace, unless Na­ture has Power enough for Saving Acts, without the least access of Strength from Grace: for their Grace gives not the least degree of Strength to the Will; but only rouses its native Power: as Dalilahs voice gave Sampson no more strength, when she [Page 32] said, The Philistins are upon thee, but on­ly excited him to use the strength he had▪ When they will have this swasive Grace to be sufficient, they commend not Grace at all, but magnifie the Power of Nature, as being great indeed, when it needs so little help for Acts of the highest qua­lity and importance. If any be saved in their way, it must be without any Grace sufficient to Salvation.

3. It is not effectual Grace. This is plain by the former. There can be no pretence that that will be effectual which is not sufficient. But suppose it were suf­ficient, (as they without ground would have it accounted) yet it is not of it self effectual. The Efficacy of it, by their Do­ctrine, is not from its own Nature and Vertue, nor from the Spirit of Grace, but from the Will of Man. If he will, it is efficacious; if he will not, it is of no Effect. So that, if it should prove Effe­ctual to save any; yet that is to be ascri­bed to Free Will, and not to Grace; to that which makes it Effectual, when other­wise it would be of no effect.

In short, it is not saving Grace, tak [...] it in any of their Senses. As Saving Grace is peculiar to the saved, so it is far from being saving. In this respect it is [Page 33] no more saving than damning, if so much, since the most incomparably that have it are damned.

Or if we take saving Grace for that which is sufficient for Salvation, it is not saving, unless there be a Power in mans degene­rate Nature to save it self; Power enough in the worst for saving acts, such as needs nothing but exciting.

Or if we take it for that which is Ef­fectual to Salvation, it has no such Effi­cacy from it self or from God; it is only from the Will of man that it is effectual to Salvation, if ever it prove so. So that in their way, either there is no Grace at all that is saving, or none that is saving at a better rate than the Will of man can make it so, when it has no saving vertue of it self, or from God.

There needs no other Arguments against this Doctrine, no Artifice to ingage us against it, but a true and plain discovery of it. If we be saved by Grace, this Do­ctrine tends to lead us out of the way of Salvation.

II. Let us see what they ascribe to Free-will. And that in general is a Power to be willing or unwilling, as to any Motion that is made, any Object that is offered [Page 34] to it. It has a Power of it self, and by its own natural Constitution, either to choose or refuse, either to imbrace or re­ject whatever Object is propounded, how­ever it be propounded. The Will, they say, is never determined ad unum, never so set upon one thing good or bad, but that by rational inducement, i. e. by Mo­tives and Arguments, it may be led to the contrary; and never so moved by such inducements, but that it may reject the motion. Never so set upon Sin, but that by swasive Proposals it may be moved to leave, not only the Acts, but the State of Sin: nor ever so moved by that, or any thing else, but that it may repell the mo­tion, and quite stifle it.

We may view it more distinctly in these two branches.

(1.) A Power to choose whatever good is offered. They will have it able of it self to imbrace any good Object of what Na­ture soever; not only natural or moral but what is supernatural, of the highest Nature and Quality; and the imbracing of it saving, such as will pass a man in­to a saving State. It has a Power to repent of sin, to believe in Christ, to turn to God, to love, fear and delight in him. [Page 35] Not only a capacity, but an active Power for these, &c. Only these things must be propounded to it with some clearness and earnestness, as the Gospel propounds them to all under its Ministry. And that such a Proposal is required signifies no inabili­ty in the Will it self for these great things: for the most sufficient Faculty imaginable cannot act upon an object that it discovers not; and the Faculty of greatest Power may, in some cases, need exciting. And so it is requisite the will have Light to discover its Object, and some Arguments to commend it, at least when the Soul is under the disadvantage of rooted prejudi­ces, or habitual and inveterate wicked­ness.

However, all the help they think need­full for the Will, is so far from denying its Power and Sufficiency for those great concerns of Salvation; that it supposes the Will to have it in and of it self, if saving things be but represented to it as necessary and worthy of its choice and embraces.

(2.) A Power to refuse any Object, how­ever it be offered, with what advantage soever it be propounded by the Spirit of God, or the Ministry of man. For the Li­berty, [Page 36] they make essential to the Will, consists, they say, in an indifferency, ei­ther to choose or refuse, either to act or not to act. And it must be left indiffe­rent in all cases; so that nothing in Hea­ven or Earth can determine it, but it self. God himself they say cannot without fail determine it to the choice of this or the other without destroying it. Voluntas ho­minis ad actus suos motione irresistibili de­terminari non potest ne ab ipso Deo quidem. (Syn. Dor. 212.) He cannot Vid. Ames re­script. p. 129. incline the will irresistably, he cannot by any Divine Motion of unwilling make it willing. Whatever Power he does or can put forth for this purpose, the Will may and can resist it and render it of no effect. If the Lord do desire and intend to Convert a Sinner, and do what can be done by the Power of his Grace in order thereto; yet the Will may hinder him. Take it in their own words, A man may hinder his own regene­ration, when God has a mind to have him re­generated, and it is his will to regenerate him, Coll. Hag. 282. Corvinus (the most subtile and cautious of their writers) says expresly, Positis omnibus ad agen­dum Vid. Hickm. p. 33. requisitis, &c. when all [Page 37] the Operations of Grace in order to Con­version are past upon the Will; yet it is still in the free power of the Will to con­vert or not to convert it self. So that, when God has done his utmost to bring a Sinner into a saving State; yet it is in the power of the Will to defeat and hin­der him. In plain terms, when God has done what he can, the Will may do what it list. They will have the Will to be so free, as that it can be under no necessity of any sort, not only such as is natural, or compulsive, or absolute, which is grant­ed; but such as is only respective▪ and that in reference to God himself. So that [...]f it be needfull in respect of the Decree and Purpose of God, or in respect of his Will and Desire, or in respect of his Word and Ingagement, or in respect of his De­sign and Intention, that the Will should move this way and not the other; yet it may incline and determin it self the other way; and so may act counter to God in [...]hese his Concerns, defeat him in them [...]ll, and carry it against him. The Pur­ [...]ose, the Promise, the Providence, the Grace of God, the Undertaking of Christ, [...]he Operations of the Spirit, may be fru­ [...]rated unavoidably by mans Will. So great [Page 38] a Power they give it. The Lord shall not have his Will, nor make good his Word, nor make his Grace prevalent, nor accom­plish his greatest Designs, if mans Will com­ply not; and it is never under any necessity to comply, but may always resist, when the Lord has done what he can to bring it to a complyance. This is the true Visage of their Doctrine, if you will see it plain and naked. There needs no ill Language to render it ugly.

But as to our present Purpose. The first Branch of this Power, ascribed to the Will▪ makes the Grace, which we stand in most need of, to be needless. For if the Will can embrace any Object in order to Sal­vation, upon a common proposal; there needs no Strength from Grace to en­able it.

The other Branch makes all the Grac [...] they own, to be fruitless, of no effect, [...] meer Cypher, which stands for nothing does, can do nothing but at the descretion of Free-will. For the Will, when the Ob­ject is propounded, with what advantage soever the Proposal be made, can always resist and reject it utterly. So that the Grace of God comes to nothing, at the meer humour of mans Free-will.

By the former Branch of the Will's suf­ficiency, the Power, in matters of Salvati­on, is from Free-will, and not from Grace: for their Grace gives it no Power at all, but supposes it there already.

By the latter Branch, the Act, in the con­cerns of Salvation, is from the Will, not from Grace: For Grace leaves the Will indiffe­rent to act or not to act; and therefore its acting is no more from Grace than its not acting; its accepting of Christ no more from Grace than its rejecting him.

Now if both the Power and the Act, in the concerns of Salvation, be from Free-will, and not from Grace; then it is by Free-will, not by Grace, that we are saved.

III. Let us view the Import and dange­rous Tendency of this Doctrine; and then you will see sufficient Reason to reject it. Every particular will be an Argu­ment against it; and the particulars are very many.

(1.) They make no Grace needfull, but what was acknowledged by those Persons who were condemned by the Ancient Church as Enemies of the Grace of Christ. Pelagius, the Patriarch of the Asserters of Free-will, to the prejudice of Divine Grace, [Page 40] acknowledged not only a Natural, but a Doctrinal Grace, viz. the Word of God discovering and propounding that which is good, and perswading Sinners to em­brace it; suadet omne quod bonum est, it perswades to all that is good. Here's the swasive Grace of his Modern followers. Nay, he went further, and not only re­quired an external Proposal of the Object, in the Ministry of the Word; but acknow­ledged an inward Operation of the Spirit, for inlightning the Mind, and exciting the Affections; Nos ineffabili dono gratiae coelestis illuminat, He inlightens us with the un­speakable Gift of his heavenly Grace; fu­turae gloriae magnitudine & praemiorum polici­tatione accendit: He inflames us with Pro­mise of Rewards and the greatness of the future Glory, and excites the stupid Will, by the Revelation of Wisdom, to Desires after God. Some of his late followers think it not fit to come short of him in this, but seem to require some act of the Spirit to inlighten the Mind, and to stirr up the Affections. But others of them, most applauded and followed; deny all Necessity of any immediate Illumination by the Spirit; and tell us, ‘That every one who has the use of Reason, may, [Page 41] without any special inward Light, very easily apprehend whatever in Scripture is necessary to be known or believed. Episcop. And that no imme­diate Operation of the Spi­rit De Perspicuit. Script. thes. 1. & 3. upon the Mind or Will, is needful for any one that he may Believe.’ Id. in Syn. Dor. p. 200. So that no Grace is needfull with these men, but only an external Proposal by the Word: for what the Word propounds may, without the Light of the Spirit, be sufficiently understood and offered to the Will: and the Will, they say, has un­questionably power to embrace whatever is so offered by the Understanding. If any thing could hinder the Will from embra­cing the Good proposed, it must be some Corruption in mans Soul, some strong Pre­judices or vicious Habits determining the Will unavoidably to that which is evil: but no such thing can be admitted, as they state the Wills liberty. For, as no pow­er of Grace, no Operation of the Spirit can determine the Will irresistibly to that which is good, but when it has done its utmost, the Will remains free to the con­trary evil: so no power of Corruption can determin the Will to any evil, but [Page 43] it will remain free to choose the contrary good propounded to it.

The Will of fallen Man, notwithstand­ing any supposed Corruption in the Soul native or acquired, still retains its primi­tive Power intire; only it is under some Impediment as to the Exercise of it, there is one thing wanting which hinders it from acting, it cannot act without an Object. And this signifies no defect or weakness in the Will: for the most perfect Faculty of Man or Angel in Heaven must have a [...] Object that it may act. Now the Object is offered in the Gospel, and the Proposal o [...] the Object by the Gospel, with the Motives and Arguments there contained, i [...] all the Grace, all the supernatural Ai [...] and divine Assistances, which they thin [...] requisite to help the Will, to believe and turn to God. This is to ascribe less t [...] Grace than the old Pelagians did, who ye [...] were branded by the Church as the capital Enemies of supernatural Grace, an [...] upon that account scarce thought worth [...] to be called Christians.

(2.) By their Doctrine, Grace is give [...] according to Merit. This was the most le­prous part of Pelagianism, which the an­cient Church had in [...] greatest detestation [Page 42] and for which Pelagius himself had been Anathematized, branded with the highest Censure, by a Synod in Palaestin, but that he pretended to renounce it.

Yet Merit, in the sense of that Age, was a far less thing, and much more tolerable than the Papists merit of Condignity. It was not only a good work, of such value and worth in it self, as that a Reward should be due to it in Justice; but Merit, as they understood it, was any good act which a man did of himself, upon the account of which Grace was vouchsafed. This Bellarmin himself acknowledges, how­ever he was concerned to deny it. ‘The Fathers (says he) understood Grace to be given according to Merit, when any thing is done by our own strength, in respect whereof De Grat. & libr. arbit. l. 6. c. 5. Grace is given, altho' it be no Merit of Condignity.’

And in this sence of Merit, the modern Asserters of Free-will would have all Grace given, according to Merit. How univer­sal soever they make Grace to be, yet no man shall have it unless he merit it. That Grace may be Universal, they will have it communicated both to those that are without the Gospel, and to those that en­joy [Page 44] it. For those who have not the Gospel, he is ready to give all of them the Grace of the Gospel, if they will use the Light of Nature well; and he does give it actually to those, who by the good use of their Free-will, make such an improvement of natural Light. Here the good use of na­tural Light is a good act; and upon the account of that, the Grace of the Gospel is given, i. e, this Grace is given accord­ing to Merit, in the sense of the Fathers, who counted it so execrable to have it given according to Merit. Those (say the Remonstrants) whom God calleth, and to whom he does vouchsafe the Grace of Preaching, we confess, for the most part, to be such men, that their Vertues do deserve no less. Epist. contr. Walach. p. 44.

For those who have the Gospel, God is ready to give further Grace to them, if they would be worthy Hearers, as they may be, if they would use their Free-will well in hearing. ‘But there are some worthy hearers of the Gospel, and some unworthy, says Corvinus; and sufficient Grace is not given to all promiscuously who hear, sed iis qui digni sun [...] evangelii auditores, but to those In Twiss. 387. who are worthy hearers.’ Which [Page 45] is in effect, as tho' he spoke out, and said, It is given according to Merit, which is all point blank against the Apostle, 2 Tim. 1. 9. Tit. 3. 4.

This they extend to the Fountain of all, the eternal Purpose of God. All the Grace, which is comprized in the Election of Grace, will be ordered according to Merit. Election of particular Persons depends up­on their Faith or Works foreseen. The Lord foresees who will believe, and be­cause they will believe, upon the account of this good act he does elect them; so they are elected according to Merit. But does he not purpose from Eternity to give Faith in time? No, by no means; for if he had decreed this, they would be under some Necessity to believe; and such Neces­sity is not consistent with the Liberty of mans Will. Therefore it must be left to their Free-will whether they shall believe or no: and when God foresees that they shall make so good use of their Free-will as to believe, then upon that account he elects them. In plain English, he chooses those, whom he foresees will merit the Election of Grace by the good use of Free-will.

Nay, all the Grace, in the great and [Page 46] precious Promises, and in the whole Co­venant of Grace, will be according to Me­rit. For they will have the accomplish­ment of all suspended upon some Conditi­on; such a condition, as is to be perform­ed meerly by the power of Free-will, as­sisted by no Grace at all, but that gentle excitement which they call Swasion, which enables not the Will to perform the Con­dition, but plainly speaks it able before hand. Such a condition performed is in­deed a Cause, a moving and engaging Cause, and no less Merit, than that which the ancient Church condemned in Pelagius. For it is a good Act performed by our own strength, upon the account of which the Grace of the Covenant is vouchsafed, which a Jesuit will not deny to be the Merit that is under the Curse and Execra­tion of Synods and Fathers twelve hundred years agoe. Their other Principles over­throw the Grace of God, and lay it pro­strate; but this quite destroyes it, and makes it no Grace, if the Apostles arguing be good Reason, Rom. 11. 6.

(3.) This Doctrine (which owns no more Grace, and ascribes so much to Free-will) makes God not to be the worke [...] or real Cause of the spiritual and saving [Page 47] blessings of Conversion and Regeneration, nor the Author and Giver of Faith, Re­pentance, Holiness. These are rather to be ascribed to Man, than unto God. This will appear,

1. In general. Conversion, Regenerati­on, Sanctification, Perseverance, and what else of this nature is required to our Sal­vation, is to be attributed to a mans self, more than the Spirit of Grace; they are the Effects and A [...]chievements of Free-will, rather than of Grace.

A man Converts and quickens himself, Regenerates and begets himself, Creates himself so far as he is a New Creature, and upholds himself when he is created. This seems strange and uncouth (not to say absurd and horrid); but there is plain Reason for it, such as may convince any who will yield to evident Reason.

Grace, however considered, (either in Election, or Redemption, or the Holy Spi­rits Operations) does no more for the quic­kening and Regenerating of those who are converted, than it does for those who are never converted; therefore it is not Grace, but something else, that does the work. If the Lord had done no more for the making of this World, than for making [Page 48] of other Worlds that were never made, the Creation of the World could never have been ascribed to him. If Christ had done no more to raise Lazarus from the dead, than he did to raise others who con­tinued dead in their Graves, he could not have been said to raise him to Life. He that does no more towards the effecting of a thing, than when it is not done at all, he cannot be said to do it. Now Grace does no more for the quickening of those that are alive to God, than for those who are still dead and will be so for ever. Therefore it is not Grace that does the work; it must be ascribed to something else, not to the Spirit of Grace, but to a mans self, and his own Free-will.

This is evident in the Nature, visible in the very Complexion of their Moral Grace. This (which is all the Grace they own) consists in Swasive Proposals. Now he that only perswades or propounds the doing of a thing, does not thereby do it at all, but would have you to do it your selves, and supposes you can if you will. So that this is the plain Import of their Doctrine, that men can convert and quic­ken themselves, and do it if it be done. However any be said to be born of God, [Page 49] yet they may beget themselves. However they be said to be the Lords Workmanship, created of Christ Jesus unto good works, ver. 10. yet they are their own Workman­ship, and make themselves new Creatures. However the Apostle saith, ver. 1. You hath he quickned, yet indeed they raise themselves to life. And since they do it themselves, to themselves they may in all reason ascribe it, and accordingly glory in it. The Crown is not to be cast at the seet of him who sits on the Throne. Grace is to have neither Throne nor Crown; that is to have the Crown which does the work; Free-will does it, and this must wear it.

2. More particularly, it is manifest, that they make not God to be the real cause of those saving works, or the giver of those Spiritual Blessings; because by their Do­ctrine neither the Power nor the Act can be ascribed to him: For they say he does nothing to this purpose but by vertue of Moral Grace: And it is evident, that this, or He by this, gives neither the Power nor he Act, &c.

(1.) Swasive Grace, or the Lord by swa­ [...]ive Proposals, gives no man power to be­ [...]ieve or turn to God; it rather supposes [Page 50] that he has it already before or without this Grace. The vertue of it (of all the Grace they own) is only that of Advice or Suasion; and no man reasonably per­swades or advises another to be able, but only to be willing to use what already he has. He that holds forth a Light to a Man lying on the ground, and moves him with Arguments to rise and walk, does not thereby give him Legs and Strength, but supposes he has these already, if he would use them. He that only shews another what he has to doe, and offers reason to perswade him to do it, not taking any other course to strengthen him for it, takes it for granted that he is afore-hand able for it. Now this is all that their Moral Grace pretends to; it shews the Sinner that it is his Duty to turn to God, &c. and uses Arguments to move him to it, but gives no other strength for it than what this Advice includes, which as Per­swasion or Advice does indeed give none at all, but plainly supposes it in being▪ They say, a Sinner, under the Influence of this Moral Grace, is able to Convert and Regenerate himself, to beget himself to a New Life. But if he be able, his Ability is from Nature; and the Power [Page 51] of his natural Faculties was not from Grace, seeing this their Grace is not for the giving of Ability where it is not, but only for exciting it where it is be­fore.

(2.) As the Power for these great Con­cerns of Salvation is not from God or his Grace, so neither is the Act from him. For, 1. That which gives or works the Act, determins the Will, or causes it to de­termin it self; but the Lord by this Grace (which is all they own) brings it only to the Wills choice, and leaves it to do as it list, and so plainly leaves the Act to it self; so that if the Soul do actually Believe, or Repent, or turn to God, this is of it self: their Grace leaves the Will in­different to act or not to act, and so no more works the one than the other, and is no more the Cause that it acts, than that it acts not. It leaves it to the Will, either to yield or refuse; if it yield, it is not from Grace, but the Will. Grace leaves it in the Power of the Will to re­sist; if it resist not, it is from the Will, not from Grace. The Lord by his Pow­er works not the Will to turn to God, to love, to embrace Christ, to yield to the Spirit; but leaves it indifferent to [Page 52] turn to God or against him, to love God or to hate him, to embrace Christ or re­ject him, to yield to the Spirit or resist him. It must be left indifferent as to either, Grace turns not the Scales, but leaves the Will at an equal poise, that the Will of Man, not the Grace of God, may have the casting weight; if Grace should weigh it down, the Liberty of the Will, they say, would be violated, and its Nature des [...]oyed.

(3.) Nay, their Grace is so far from working the Will to actual Faith or Ho­liness, that by their account it seems to lead a man into Sin, and leave him in it: for it is a Sin for a man to be Indifferent whether he Believe or Believe not, whe­ther he accept Christ or reject him, whe­ther he love or hate him: But all that this Grace does to the Will, is to bring it to such an Indifferency; and so the Grace of God with them does no other, no bet­ter Office for a Sinner, than to bring his Soul into a wicked Posture; and in that Posture it does and must leave the Will to it self; and there left, if the Will be no better to it self than Grace is, or can be, it shall never come into a better Po­sture.

Nay further, the Lord is so far from Determining the Will, and so from causing the Act by making it willing; that it is impossible for him to do it. They say (as was shewed before) that the Will cannot be determined by God himself without de­stroying it; they will have it an Incon­sistency, and to imply a Contradiction. And thus the Lord is so far from being the Worker or real Cause of actual Faith, Conversion, Sanctification, that it is im­possible he should be the Cause thereof; he is so far from actually working these, that he cannot do it.

Let me but add one Argument more. This Grace is given equally to all, and ef­fects no more in one than another; and therefore can be no more the Cause of actual Conversion in those that turn to God, than in those that are never con­verted; works Regeneration no more in those that are sanctified, than in the un­regenerate; i. e. works it not at all, is no Cause of it. The Lord, by vertue of this Grace, gives actual Faith and Repentance no more to those that Believe and Re­pent, than to such as persevere in Impe­nitency and Unbelief: gave Faith no more to Paul than to Judas, Repentance no [Page 54] more to Peter than to Simon Magus; i. e. he gives it not at all.

This is the clear consequence of their Doctrine. The Lord is not the Author and Finisher of our Faith, or of our Re­pentance; nor the real Cause of Conver­sion or Sanctification, and other saving Blessings; and so, not the Author of Sal­vation. It is not by his Grace, but of our selves, both as to the Power and the Act, in direct opposition to the Text and the whole strain of the Gospel. And it is as reconcileable with Scripture and the Per­fections of God, to say he is not the Cre­ator of the World, or the Author of any thing; as to say he is not the Author or real Cause of those great Concerns of Salvation.

(4.) This leads them to deny Original Sin. They must of necessity make little or nothing of the Corruption of our Nature, since they will have their Swasive Grace to be a sufficient Relief against it; as if all the Sin in mans Nature could be ar­gued out of him without more adoe, and all the Power of Corruption, natural and contracted too, might be effectually sub­dued and crucified by rational Advice; whereas this Moral Swasion is of it self of [Page 55] no Efficacy at all for this purpose, and appears to be so in that it effects no such thing in far the greatest part of those who partake of it as much as any, but leaves them altogether as corrupt as it found them.

I cannot discern, that they will acknow­ledge any corruption at all to be in the Will, tho Scripture and Experience shew that it is most of all there. The Will seems to be now as sound (by their Doctrine) as it was in Innocency; nor stands it in need of more help by Grace, than Adam before the Fall: for then he had and needed Swasive Grace. In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt dye: Here is the Duty propounded, and the Proposal inforced with a powerful Mo­tive by God himself; that is the sum of Swasive Grace, which the Lord seeing needfull for our first Parents, did thus ad­minister it, as far from Corruption as it was then. And if the Will need no more now, it is as free from Corruption as it was then. Thus for the Affections, there must be no more Corruption in them than in the Will, these being but the Acts and Motions of it. Or, if they will consider them as in the Sensitive Appetite; yet [Page 56] common Illumination is enough to heal it there: for thereby the Affections are sufficiently excited and quickened. Nor is there any Depravation in the Mind, but what may be cured by common Light, such as the most corrupt and wicked men have.

That which admits so easie a Cure must needs be sleight and little; and that little too, which they acknowledge, is with them neither Sin nor Punishment proper­ly, and so not evil at all, unless there be some evil which is neither. The Depra­vation of our Natures by the Fall, how­ever it be aggravated in Scripture, is not in their account properly either our Sin or our Punishment; but only our Infeli­city; and no great Infelicity neither, since with them it can be neither spiritual Death, nor mortal Disease, no nor very considerable Weakness. For if it were such a Weakness, no Grace would re­pair it but that which communicates an answerable Strength. But that Grace which they think sufficient to repair all, gives not any strength at all, but sup­poses there is Power enough in Nature to Recover it self, if it be but excited.

This in a manner makes Christ of none [Page 57] effect. The great end of his coming was to Restore our Natures fallen from God, and made uncapable of honouring and injoying him: Therefore he took our Na­ture, and performed and suffered so much therein. But what need all this waste, if we can lick our selves whole by vertue of a little common Light? and so little not needfull with some of them. De Peccat. Orig. c. 1 [...]. The great Augustin reduces the whole Christian Doctrine to two Heads, the Knowledge of the first Adam, and the Knowledge of the Second: What we suffered by Adam, and what we gained by Christ. But tho these be Fundamen­tal in the Christian Doctrine, how little they stand for in the Doctrine of Free-will, we may hereby perceive. And it will be further manifest by another Fundamental, which, depending on this now insisted on, falls with it.

(5.) By this Doctrine there is no need of Regeneration. To be Regenerate, is in the Language of the Holy Ghost to be born of God, Joh. 1. 13. to be born again, or born from above, Joh. 3. 3. and that is to receive a Principle of Spiritual Life and Motion from God. Vid. Ham. in Joh. 1. 13. But no such Principle is necessary [Page 58] in the Will, which indeed most needs it. But no Habit of Holiness is planted there, no good Quality created in it by the Spi­rit; that they say is a necessitating Act, and would be prejudicial to its Liberty. The Image of God needs no repairing in the Heart or Will, tho' that be the chief Receptacle and Subject of it; even the Schoolmen making this the principal Seat of all Vertues. It needs no such in­fused Principle or Quality, to incline it to that which is good; they will have it able of it self, by its own native Power, to embrace any good, how supernatural soever, which the Mind offers to it. It can produce the best Acts, without any inward Principle suitable or proportionable to them. The Tree need not be good, that the Fruit may be good; or rather, it is good enough already, it is so natu­rally. The Will or Heart of Man (how naught soever the Scripture speaks it, re­presenting it to be desperately wicked, Jer. 17. 9. and the Fountain of all Wicked­ness, Mat. 15. 19.) seems by their Do­ctrine to be as good by Nature, as God can or will make it; no worse than it was when first formed. It lost no spiri­tual Qualities or Accomplishments by the [Page 59] Fall: for it had none before. Collat. H [...]g. p. 248. In spiritu­ali morte non separantur pro­priè dona spiri­tualia ab homi­nis voluntate, &c. So that all regenerating Grace as to the Will is clearly ca­shiered. Nor will they allow any new Qualities to be in­fused by the Spirit of Grace into the Mind or Affections, Syn. Dor. 196. no more than into the Will: for that they say is repugnant to the ad­ministration of the Means of Salvation. All that they think requisite, is common Light, such as they deny not to the vilest men (nor can well deny to Devils: for they discern the truth and goodness of what is proposed in the Gospel); by the [...]are help of such Light, their own Wills can regenerate them, so far as they think any Regeneration needfull. I find it no easie thing to discern what their Regene­ration is. The best I can make of it is this. The Mind needs no new Birth or Life, but what it has from common Light; nor do the Affections need any exciting or quickening but what that same effects. But tho they count this suf­ficient quickening, they do not call it Re­generation: for many, thus quickened, do live and dye unregenerate. It is an act of the Will must do the work, and for [Page 60] that the Will must be left to it self. The Spirit of God must not touch it, must not give it any Principle of Life, must not act it by any special or immediate Influence; but if of its own accord it turn it self to that which is good, the Sinner is thereby born again. So that Regeneration is com­pleated by a little common Light, such as the Children of Darkness have, and an act of Free-will, without any further as­sistance, any other work of the Spirit in or upon it.

Thus, by this one act of Free-will at first, they are regenerated actually; and afterwards, by repeated acts of Free-will, they may be regenerated habitually: for, the Will, by repeated Acts, can beget gra­cious Habits, and so help them to habi­tual Regeneration; tho they deny the Spi­rit of Grace can work in them any such thing as Habits or Principles of Holiness. Now, this is to be born again of the Will of Man, not of the Will of God, Joh. 1. 13. The Scripture declares, that they who are Regenerate, are born of God, 1 Joh. 3. 9. born of the Spirit, Joh. 3. 8. but this is to be born of Free-will, not of God, nor of the Spirit, unless Free-will be God or the Spirit. The Apostle says, of his own [Page 61] Will begat he us, Jam. 1. 18. but they must say, Of their own Wills they beget themselves. Yet, this is all the Regene­ration which they count necessary, and so make that New-birth a needless thing, which the Scripture calls for and describes [...]y other Characters, and declares all ac­cess to the Kingdom of Heaven impossible without it.

(6.) This takes Sinners off from that which is really saving, and leads them to [...]ake up with that which falls short of Sal­vation. It teaches them to rest satisfied with such a Faith, a Repentance, a Con­ [...]ersion, a Regeneration, as common Light [...]nd rational Proposals (such as every one [...]eets with in the Ministry of the Word) [...]re sufficient to effect. But these alone can [...]ever produce any saving Faith or Repen­ [...]ance, any saving Regeneration or Con­ [...]ersion

Those who perswade them, that this is [...]nough for those saving Effects, go about [...]o delude Sinners; and if they look after [...]o more, their Souls are like to be ruined [...]r ever. Moral Grace may perhaps pre­ [...]ail for some Morality; but this alone can [...]ever be effectual, to turn a Heart of stone [...]to a Heart of flesh, to turn the Enmity [Page 62] of the Will into Love to Christ, to turn Sinners from the Power of Satan unto God, to raise the Soul to Life that is spi­ritually dead, to make them new Crea­tures, &c. These are not the Effects of [...] gentle Swasion, but of an Almighty Pow­er. They mean something else than Scri­pture intends by these Expressions, wh [...] make these saving works so low, commo [...] and easie things, and so much in the Pow­er, and at the beck of a Sinners corrupte [...] Will. Nothing more ruines Souls, tha [...] resting in that as saving which is not so and when Divines promote the Delusio [...] how pernicious is it like to prove?

(7.) It destroyes holy Obedience, inwa [...] and outward. Leaves no place for th [...] exercise of Grace in the Heart, or wor [...] truely good in the Conversation. It pluc [...] up these by the roots, taking away h [...] bitual Regeneration which is the root [...] them, the exercise of Grace in the acti [...] of an inward gracious Principle; but the say there is no such Principle planted [...] the Heart or Will by the Spirit of H [...] liness; and where the Principle is not, [...] cannot be acted. There can be no vit [...] Acts, where there is no vital Principle that which is not alive, cannot put for [...] [Page 63] Acts of life. Or, to use the terms where­in Christ expresses it, the Fruit is not good, unless the Tree be good. No good Acts can be produced by the Heart or Will, till it self be good. It is not, it cannot be good, when there are no good Qua­lities in it. It had no good, no holy Qualities planted in it by the Spirit of Grace; that, (with them) only acts Mo­rally, and does no more sanctifie those that are holy, than those that are profane. So that, if the Will have any goodness, any thing that is holy in it; it has it from it self, not from the Spirit of Holiness. Thus the Fruits of the Spirit will be no other, than the Fruits of Free-will; of Free-will unsanctified, unless it sanctifie it self: and the acts of Obedience will be no other, than the acts of natural Morality, such as Mans degenerate Will can pro­duce by its natural Power, without any assistance, but that of Moral or swasive Grace; which begets no good Qualities, gives no inward strength, affords no help of any kind, more to those who do most, than to those who do nothing at all.

We need not wonder, if those of this Perswasion should satisfie themselves, and would have others satisfied with such a [Page 64] Morality; their Principles do afford, and can require nothing better. But whether the Acts of it be those gracious Acts▪ those Fruits of the Spirit, those good works, which the Scripture so much calls for, and makes the Way to Salvation; let those consider who are concerned in­deed in the Way to Salvation.

T [...]y charge their Opposers, for not pressing Moral Duties. If they mean there­by Practical Christianity, there are none in the World press it more. But we are not for a Pagan, but a Christian Morality; and think it not adviseable to press exter­nal Acts alone, without minding the Prin­ciple and Root, from whence all that is truely Christian must spring. We count it absurd and preposterous to look for Fruits where there is no Root, for gracious Acts where Grace is not planted in the Heart. They may deck a May-pole with as many Garlands as they please, and set off a Mast with Flags and Streamers; but they will never thereby make them Fruit-trees. The Lord will condemn those who bring not forth good Fruit; and those also who lead them in a way, where they are never like to be truely fruitfull, without better con­duct.

(8.) This stifles Love to God, takes a­way that which is the Foundation and Ground of a special transcendent Love to him. That which is the rise of our Love to God, is his Love to us, 1 Joh. 4. 19. it is this that kindles our Affection to him, and raises Love into a Flame: But he that believes and considers, that God had no more thoughts of Love for him from Eternity, than he had for those who are under his everlasting Hatred; and that Christ had no more Love for him in the work of Redemption; did Obey, Suffer, Satisfie, Purchase no more [...]or him, than he did for those who were in Hell, when he Suffered; and that the Spirit of Grace does no more for him, in order to his Salvation, than he does for the Vessels of Wrath, sitted for Destruction; will scarce find any thing in the Love of God (on this Consideration) to engage his Soul to a special Love for God: He will be in danger to Love God with no more than a common Love, such as a carnal Man may have; who believes that the Lord loves him no more, than he loves those who are to be tormented for ever with the Devil and his Angels. He will [...]ind a Motive from hence, to hug and love [Page 66] himself rather than God: For, when that which they call Love in God, seems but an indifferent respect, not intending more good to one than another, but as them­selves determine it; he had got no speci­al benefit, no particular advantage by that Love, if he had not been better to him­self: The Lord, as they represent him, (whatever is pretended concerning the greatness and universality of his Love to Mankind) seems indifferent as to Love or Hatred, as to the Happiness or Misery of Man. The Lord left it indifferent, in his eternal Purpose, whether any should be Saved or no; and Christ, in the Work of Redemption, left it indifferent whether any should be actually Redeemed or no; and the Spirit, in Calling Sinners, leaves it indifferent whether any be effectually Called or no: There was no Affection in all this, but what might have ended in Love or Hatred, i. e. in the Damning of all, as soon as the Saving of any. That which determines this indifference, and makes it prove Love, is the Sinner him­self, the good use of his Free-will: Had it not been for this, for any Love that God had for him, for any expression of it from Father, Son, or Spirit, he had [Page 67] been one of the Children of Wrath, in the same Condemnation with others. So that the plain tendency of their Doctrine, is to lead Sinners to reflect affectionately on themselves, but with Indifferency upon God.

Such is the general Love which they will have in God to Mankind; it is but an indifferent respect to all; which proves Love or Hatred, as the Sinners Will de­termines it. But when they ascribe any particular Love to God, it is no other than what arises from the Sinners Love to him: He foresaw that we would be­lieve, and so love him, and therefore he intended Life for us: He foresaw that we would embrace and choose Christ, and therefore did he choose us. So that God did not Love us first, but we him, what­ever the Apostle says, 1 Joh. 4. 10, 19. He did not Choose us first, but we did Choose him, whatever Christ says, Joh. 15. 16. Thus they stop up the Spring of our Love to God, they destroy the rea­son, and raze the ground of our Love to him, if that be it which the Apostle as­signs. It is the greatness, the riches, the freeness of Divine Love that ingages, that constrains us to Love him: But this Do­ctrine [Page 68] not only defaces the Riches and Freeness, but in a manner takes away the true Naure and Notion of his Love, when it makes it an Affection so indifferent to Mans Happiness or Misery.

(9.) It destroys the Exercise of Faith, and takes them off from a continued de­pendance on God, and trusting in him. It is inconsistent with that Life of Faith, which must be the Life of every Chri­stian.

This takes them off from depending on God, both in their spiritual Concerns, and in common and humane Affairs.

1. For those Affairs which depend on the Wills of other Men: They cannot de­pend on God for the ordering of them; for none are to depend on him for things which are not at his disposal: But the Wills of Men, and so the Affairs which depend thereon, are not (with them) at Gods disposal; since, by their Principles, he cannot sway their Wills effectually one way or other; for this, in their Account, is to destroy their natural Liberty.

2. As to spiritual Concerns, for the ma­king of Grace, or the means of Grace effectual. For the Promoting of Holiness, for the Growth or Exercise of it, or for [Page 69] Perseverance in it, there is no need to de­pend on God: For it is not necessary to depend on another for that which is in his own Power. Now these things, and the like, are in the Power of his own Will; he is the Master of them, if he will not be wanting to himself. Indeed it is more in their own Power, than in the Power of God; for every Mans Will can determine it self to these things, but God cannot, without destroying the Will: For if he determine it, he leaves it not indifferent; and if it be not indifferent, it is not free; and if it be not free, it is not an humane Will: And therefore they have more reason to depend on themselves, where they believe the Power is, than on God, where they say it is not. If there be any reason to rely on God, it is for further continuance of that which they call suffi­cient Grace: But there is no more need to depend on him for this, than the other; for this is never withdrawn, unless they be contumacious, and obstinately resist it: But then it is in their Power not to re­sist, but comply with it; and if they will not, God cannot help it: For when he has put forth all the Operations of his Grace upon the Soul, the Will is at li­berty, [Page 70] and has Power to do as it list. The Power is most in Man still; and where the Power is, there must be the Dependance, upon themselves rather than upon God; though this Self-dependance be under the Curse of God in Scripture, and plainly deserves his heavyest Curse.

(10.) It overthrows Humility and Self­deni [...]l. One may smell from whence it comes, by the rank Tendency of it to Pride and Self-exaltation. The design of the Gospel is clearly to debase man, and take from him all occasion of Boasting or Glorying in himself; or of ascribing the Praise, either of his State or Actions, to himself, Rom. 3. 9. 27. 1 Cor. 1. 29, 30. But this Doctrine obliges a Believer to ascribe the difference, which is be­twixt him and others who are in the State of Sin and Misery, not unto Grace, but to himself; leaves him no ground to imagine that it was Grace which made the difference.

Grace is, with them, indifferently af­forded unto all Sinners under the Gospel at lest. Others had the same Light, the same rational Proposals, with as much Clearness and Earnestness, in the same Degree, and of no less Power and suffi­ciency; [Page 71] it is common in all respects. That which is every way common and indifferent, could not possibly make us to differ. But when they had it in com­mon, this man would make good use of it, without any other help from Grace than the rest had; they would not. His Will complyed with the Proposal; their Wills, no less assisted than his, resisted. Grace brought it equally to the choice of their Wills, and there left it: His Will determined it self to comply; their Wills determined against it: that made the difference, not Grace, which was alike in all; but Free-will, which he used better than Others. If my Will (may he say) had not been better to me than Grace, it had been as bad with me as them: For Grace was as good to them as me. The Apostle asks, Who made thee to differ? 1 Cor. 4. 7. supposing none would have the Confidence to arrogate this to him­self. But he that is for Free-will must say, I made my self to differ. Grace brought it to the choice of my Will, whether there should be any difference or no; it does no more for any; if there be any difference made, it is Free-will that makes it. Those of them that are so in­genuous [Page 72] as to use plain dealing, speak out, and say expresly, Ego me discerno, I make the difference my self.

The Apostle says, By the Grace of God I am what I am, 1 Cor. 15. 10. but they must say, By the good use of Free-will I am what I am: For Grace is such a thing (with them) as moves all, affects all, leaves all alike: If any one be better than another, as to state or actings, it is not Grace that makes him so, for the worst have as much of their Grace as the best; the difference must be ascribed to Free­will. Nor can their Doctrine shew them any Reason, why they should not ascribe it to themselves, and glory in it, what­ever become of the Glory of Divine Grace.

(11.) It makes it Ʋnnecessary or Ʋnrea­sonable, to Pray for themselves or others, for those things which we should most of all Pray for: This is evident enough, in that it leaves not place for Faith and Dependance on God, in common Affairs, or spiritual Concerns, as was shewed be­fore. For we are not to Pray to God, but where we may rely and depend on him; nor seek him for what we may not trust him, Rom. 10. 14, But further, [Page 73] the things that Christians are principal­ly to Pray for, are spiritual and heaven­ly Blessings; these are all comprized in, or depend upon Grace. Let us see how favourable their Principles are to Praying for Grace, either effectual or preventing.

As to the former, they need not Pray for Efficacious Grace, for it is in their own Power to make it effectual; and who needs beg that of another, which he has in his own Power? Their Grace is effe­ctual in the Soul, when it becomes willing, (for then it has its effect;) but with them, nothing is more in their Power and Will, than to be willing: And it is needless and senseless to Pray to God to make them will­ing, i. e. to make Grace effectual, when they can do it well enough of them­selves: August. de Nat. [...] Grat. c. 18. Quid est stultius, quam or a­re ut facias quod in potestate habes? What more foolish, than to Pray God thou mayest do that which thou hast in thine own Power? And elsewhere, Ne fal­lamus homines, &c. Let us not deceive Men, for we cannot deceive God: We Pray not [...]o God at all, but only feign that we Pray, [...]f we think that our selves, not He, doth what we Pray for.

And as they need not, so they must not [Page 74] Pray, that God would make Grace effe­ctual, or make it work effectually in them for God cannot do it, and they must no seek that of him which he cannot do [...] To make Grace effectual, is of unwilling to make them willing, to determine th [...] Will to what he Proposes; but this (the [...] say) he cannot do, without invading it freedom: All that he can do, is to Propose, and leave the Will to do as it likes if he should bow it effectually one way o [...] other, that would be a breach upon th [...] liberty which is essential to it; so that [...] beg this of him, would be to seek an i [...] possibility. So that, unless they will [...] absurd, they must not Pray that God woul [...] effectually bow or incline their Wills, [...] believe in Christ, to turn to God, to lov [...] him, to fear him, to walk in his way to hate Sin, or mortifie it; yea, or [...] avoid it. They must not Pray, that Go [...] would effectually subdue their Wills [...] his Will in any thing: For, to be so su [...] jected, though to God, and by a Divi [...] Motion, is not consistent with that Fre [...] dom which the Nature of the Will r [...] quires.

If their Petitions be of such Import, (a [...] the best Petitions of Christians are) the [Page 75] Prayers contradict their Principles; their Prayers are a Plea for the Truth which [...]hey dispute against. Whatever they ar­gue with Men, yet they must be for us, when they have to do with God, if they will have any thing to do with God [...]n Prayer, or Pray any thing like Chri­ [...]tians.

As for preventing or sufficient Grace, [...]hey need not Pray for that; for they [...]ave it already, or they will have it, thô [...]hey Pray not for it; for all have it, even [...]hose who never Pray while they live.

But if they should Pray for it, their [...]etitions must bear such a sence as will [...]e very harsh to any Christian or ratio­ [...]al Ear. Sufficient Grace is that which [...]nables a Man to turn to God if he will. So, this must be it they Pray for: Lord, give me such Grace, that I may Love [...]hee if I will, that I may Fear thee if I [...]ist, that I may Obey thee if I please. This Grace leaves, and must leave the Will in­different, to choose or refuse, to act or [...]ot to act, at its Pleasure: For so far the [...]ord may by his Grace proceed with the Will, but no farther, without intrenching [...]n its Liberty: So that it is this which they [...]ray for; Lord, give me such Grace, as [Page 76] will leave me Indifferent, either to Lov [...] or Hate thee; either to Turn or not t [...] Turn unto thee; to Obey or Rebell again [...] thee; either to Believe in Christ, or to b [...] an Unbeliever: This must be the Impo [...] of their Prayers for Grace, if they b [...] consistent with their Principles: But [...] they will Pray with the sense of Christians or sober Men, they must renounc [...] their Doctrine of Free-will.

Further, They must not Pray for other more than themselves: Not for En [...] mies, that God would effectually Tur [...] their Hearts, that they may not Oppres [...] Persecute, Obstruct the Gospel, Oppo [...] Christs Interest. They must not Pray f [...] Children, Friends, Strangers; that Go [...] would effectually Turn them to himsel [...] that he would Create in them new Heart [...] or Inspire their Wills with gracious Pri [...] ciples; that he would conquer their r [...] bellious Wills, or not leave them in a c [...] pacity to resist him, or reject the Spir [...] of Grace. They must not Pray for themselves or others, that God will give the [...] any Grace, but what will leave it at th [...] choice and arbitrement of their ow [...] Wills (when there is no good Qualit [...] in them) as well to resist as not to r [...] [Page 77] [...]st Grace, before Conversion; as well to [...]xpel as to retain it, after Conversion.

Prayer is such an acknowledgment of God, so essential to all Religion, that with­ [...]ut it there can be no Religion, either Christian or Natural; therefore so far as his Doctrine makes it unnecessary or un­ [...]easonable to Pray, so far it tends to ex­ [...]irpate all Religion.

(12.) It is inconsistent with that Thank­ [...]ulness and Gratitude which should make [...]p the Life of a Christian; with those Praises, whereby God is glorified in a [...]pecial manner, and which must be the [...]mployment of Eternity. It is the most [...]ngrateful Doctrine that ever any under [...]he Name of Christians entertained: For [...]ereby, he that is in the state of Grace, [...]as no more Cause on that account to [...]e thankful to God, than he that is in [...]he state of Sin and Damnation: For he [...]s not obliged to be thankful for more [...]han he has received; and the best Saint, [...]s such, has received no more from God, [...]wes no more to his Grace, than he that [...]ontinues the worst of Sinners. That [...]e is in a happier Condition, is from [...]imself, and the good use of his Free­will. Grace was common, afforded him [Page 78] and others indifferently; it was his ow [...] Free-will that made the difference, so f [...] as there is any. Nay, a Saint in Glor [...] will, by their Doctrine, have no mo [...] reason to be Praising God, or Admirin [...] Christ, than one in Hell: But of th [...] hereafter.

The recovery of Man out of the sta [...] of Sin and Misery, into which he is fal [...] en, either by Adam's Transgression, or h [...] own Wickedness; is more to be ascribed t [...] himself, than unto God; and so he ow [...] more thanks to himself for it, than to Go [...] He does more to Convert, to Quicken, [...] Sanctifie, to Establish, to Save himself, th [...] God does by his Grace; and so he has mo [...] reason to thank himself for all. The Lo [...] does very little, in comparison of wh [...] Man does in these great Concerns; a [...] that little which God does, would co [...] to nothing at all, if Man himself did n [...] give it efficacy, and make something [...] it: So that there is left very little grou [...] or occasion of giving Praise and Glory [...] God, where, if for any thing, the hig [...] est Praise and Glory is eternally due [...] him, and where above all he designe [...] the greatest Praise and Glory to himsel [...] There seems much more occasion to ascrib [...] [Page 79] the Praise and Glory of Mans Salvation, both on Earth and in Heaven, unto Man himself: Not unto thee, O Lord, must they say, not unto thee, but unto our selves be the Praise, or at least more unto our selves than unto thee. View this Doctrine well, and compare it with the Doctrine and Design of the Gospel, and you will find them just as agreeable as Light and Darkness.

(13.) It tempts men strongly to neglect God and their Souls, to live in any Wic­kedness their Inclination leads them to, and not to break off a Course of Sin by speedy Repentance: For their pretended sufficient Grace is universal, and denied to none; that brings Repentance to eve­ry Mans power and choice, he has Grace enough to repent if he will. And since it is in his own Power, he may take his own time for it, and need not fear to sa­tisfie himself with the Pleasures or Ad­vantages of Sin.

What is to be feared, to restrain them here from the Practice of Ungodliness and Unrighteousness? unless they will say, that common Grace being abused, may be with­drawn, and the Sinner by the Judgment of God given up to Obduration. Here [Page 80] would be some danger indeed, if that Ob­duration did irresistably determine the Sin­ners Will to such Wickedness: But there is no fear of that; for, by their Princi­ples the Will cannot be so determined, either to good or evil; it is inconsistent with that Liberty which is essential to it, and which it cannot want while it is a Will. Therefore no light can be with­drawn, no hardness can be contracted; but the Will must still be at liberty, to turn to God or not to turn, to repent or not to repent, at pleasure. They have se­curity, from their Principles, to go on in their evil ways, 'till they be in danger to live no longer; and then it is not a per­adventure, if God will give them Repent­ance; they have enough for that in their own Power, and may repent and turn to God when they list. Accordingly, one of the prime Asserters of this Doctrine, be­ing admonished of his Debauches, made this return; I am a Child of the Devil to day, but I have Free-will, and to morrow I will make my self a Child of God.

(14.) It destroys Justification of the Go­spel, all Justification of Sinners, which the Gospel gives notice of: It will have us Ju­stified, not by the Righteousness of Christ, [Page 81] or of God, but our own Righteousness; by our own Righteousness, in the fullest and grossest sense; by a Righteousness which is in our selves, and of our selves, and by our selves: By our own acts or works, not Performed by the help of any special Grace, but by the Power of Free­will.

Their Justification is thus stated: The act of Faith (or sincere Obedience, or inherent Holiness) though it be imper­fect, yet is accepted of God instead of a perfect Righteousness; and so by it we are Justified, as if it were a perfect Righ­teousness. Now those acts of Faith, or Obedience, or whatever they call it, which they will have to be the Righteousness by which we are Justified, is not of Grace neither: It is not the Gift of God, he never purposed or promised to give it un­to any: It is not the Purchase of Christ, he never merited it for any: It is not the Work of the Spirit of Grace, he does no more towards it in those that have it, than in those that never have it.

So that the Righteousness whereby they are Justified, is so far from being that which Christ performed, that he did not so much as Merit it; so far from being [Page 82] the Righteousness of God, that he does not give it; so far from being the Issue of Gods Free Grace, that it is the Pro­duct of our Free-will. How Sinners are Justified, the Apostle declares in the Text, and Tit. 3. 7. and Rom. 3. 34. But by this Doctrine, we are so far from being Justi­fied freely by his Grace, through the Re­demption that is in Christ Jesus, that we are Justified without the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus; not freely, not by his Grace, but by acts of our own Free-will, passing for a perfect Righteousness; when they are no such thing, nor can upon any ground be so accounted.

(15.) It tends to destroy the Covenant of Grace; to make it a Covenant without Grace, I had almost said an ungracious Compact; such, wherein the Lord shews himself less gracious to Men, than if they had been left under the Covenant of Works; and under which, they are more liable to Sin and Damnation, than if it had never been made: Which thus ap­pears.

The Covenant of Works required per­fect Obedience; and Man, being created after the Image of God, with Holiness and Righteousness, was able to perform that [Page 83] perfect Obedience which was the Condi­tion of that Covenant; but transgressing it by that first act of Disobedience, in eating the forbidden Fruit, he lost the Image of God, wherein his strength for observing the Covenant consisted: The Lord, they say, deprived him of that Ho­liness and Righteousness, and thereby of ability to perform the Condition. Now they say, a Man cannot sin in not doing that which he is not able to perform, though he be disabled by his own fault; and so in this state of disability, he was not capable of sinning, and consequently was not liable to Condemnation.

If things had continued in this state, none could have been Damned for actual Sin, but Adam only; and they say, for Original Sin none are Damned.

But the Covenant of Grace made a sad alteration in Mans state and circumstan­ces; for therein, sufficient Grace being offered to all, whereby they may avoid Sin if they will; they hereupon become ca­pable of sinning, as they were not be­fore; and in danger of Damnation, when before they were safe. So that their Co­venant of Grace makes Mans Condition worse than it was, instead of relieving [Page 84] him, so far is it from being truly graci­ous; even the supposed Grace of it, brings him more within the compass of Sin and Damnation than he was without it.

(16.) It Cashiers the Spirit of Grace, and all its special Offices and Operations. To pass by those who ascribe nothing at all to the Spirit; those who attribute most to it, so far as I can discern, will have us beholding to him for nothing at all, but common Light, such as the Childre [...] of Darkness have; and so weak and pow­erless, that the Will needs not follow it is not determined, nor effectually move [...] or inclined by it. The Spirit of Grac [...] (with them) has no immediate Influenc [...] upon the Will or Affections; and thi [...] is all too which the Mind has from th [...] Spirit, it moves neither Will nor Affect [...] ­ons, but remotely, but by vertue of thi [...] Light: So that the Spirit of Grace do [...] nothing in the whole Soul, Mind, Wi [...] or Affections, but what this light amoun [...] to. No more is needful, either for th [...] first rise of Holiness, or for the increas [...] and growth, or the strengthening and co [...] tinuance of it.

At first, the Will, by no other hel [...] than that of Moral Grace, (which pr [...] tend [Page 85] to no inward Operation of the Spi­rit, but only this common Illumination; for the Proposal is by the Word with­out, and the inforcing of Motives and Arguments, is by the Ministry of Man,) determines it self to turn to God; and so, without more adoe, is Converted and Regenerated. There is the rise of Holi­ness; afterwards by determining it self again and again, it acquires a habit, and that is a free and permanent Quality: That the Will exer­cises, Hoor [...]b. tom. 1. p. 316. increases, strengthens and confirms Holiness, as it began it, by de­termining it self: It has Power to do this in and of it self, and nothing else does, or can do it. The Spirit, neither by this Light, nor by any other gracious Influence, does, or can determine it: Nor does the Will need any thing for the exercise of its Power, but only Light to make a sufficient discovery of the Duty or Object propounded. Thus all the Mo­tions, Operations, Assistances, of the Spi­rit of Grace, are confined to this Light: All its healing, strengthening, quickening and establishing Vertue, amounts to no more than this: The Soul neither has, nor needs any spiritual Life, Health, [Page 86] Strength, or Motion, either first or last, but what this does effect; and yet it ef­fects no such thing in far the most that have it: For those have it, no less than others, who are, in the style of Scripture, not only in the dark, but Darkness. And if it have any more effect upon others, than it has upon the Children of dark­ness, yet this efficacy it must have from Free-will; not of it self, nor of the Spi­rit, (whom they call its Author,) other­wise it would be equally effectual in all, since all have it equally, and the Spirit is supposed to give it equally to all. And if the Spirit of Christ give it not its Efficacy and Vertue, but it owes this on­ly to Free-will; it is of no worth as i [...] proceeds from the Spirit, of no more va­lue than a fruitless and ineffectual thing; of no Vertue, and so of no value, but what it derives from Mans Will.

Now what Honour is it to the Spiri [...] of Christ, to ascribe to him a fruitless a worthless thing? They seem to honour the Spirit as much, who will borrow no light at all from him; but count the light of Reason, with the help of the written Word, sufficient: And what great diffe­rence is there betwixt them who ascribe [Page 87] nothing at all to the Spirit, and those that ascribe to him that which is nothing worth? That which is fruitless and in­effectual, of no Vertue, of no Value, but but what it owes to Mans Will, may as well be ascribed to humane Reason, a [...] the divine Spirit.

(17.) It tends to destroy the Mediation of Christ: That liberty, which they make essential to Mans Will, makes Christ un­capable of being the Mediator between God and Man, and so tends to ruine all the concerns of God and Man in Christs Mediation. For, either the Will of Christ was undeclinably fixed upon that which is Good and Holy, so that it could not to Disobedience and Wickedness: And if so, it had not that indifferency to good and evil, in which they place the liberty of Mans Will, and count it essential there­to, so that it cannot be a humane Will without it; and then Christ, wanting that which is essential to humane Nature, was not indeed a Man, nor did assume our Nature; consequently could not be the Mediator between God and Man, being not the Man Christ Jesus.

Or, if his Will was not undeclinably fixed on that which was good, but left [Page 88] in a state of indifferency to that or the contrary; so that he might have observ­ed his Fathers Will, or not observed it; might have loved him, or not loved him; might hav [...] fulfilled all righteousness, or not fulfilled it: And if he might have sinned, or not sinned, then he was not God; for he that is God cannot sin.

So that as they state the freedom of Mans Will, either he was not Man, or he was not God; and either way he could not be Mediator, who must be both. Thus all the advantages Sinners have by his Mediation perish; and all the Glory the Lord designed to himself thereby, is blasted by the extravagant Doctrine of Free-will.

(18.) It defaces Redemption by Christ, and leaves little or no place, or no necessity, either of Satisfaction or Merit, in his Obe­dience and Sufferings.

1. He did not merit Faith, or Regene­ration, or Holiness, or Perseverance, for all, or for any particular Persons. They de­clare expresly, that it is foolishly said, that Christ procured Faith or Regeneration for any: Their Principles ingage them to maintain this; for if he merited these for any, it would have been necessary that [Page 89] these should have been wrought in some of the Redeemed; it would have been ne­cessary, that some or other of them should be Believers, regenerate and sanctified, and stedfast unto the end; but all such ne­cessity they deny, as inconsistent with that freedom of Mans Will which they con­tend for. It must not be under any ne­cessity, either from the Decree of God or the Purchase of Christ: Faith, Repen­tance, Sanctification, Perseverance, must be meer Contingencies, in respect of those former Causes; or else they could not be free Acts in respect of the Will, their next Cause. Christ, by his Death and Merit, must not be the Author or Cause of these, though there be no Pardon or Life without them; so much must not be ascribed to his Merits, lest too little be left to Free-will.

2. Upon the same Account, Christ did not Merit Pardon or Salvation for any one certainly; and so his Death makes nei­ther the Means nor the End certain. Af­ter he had done and suffered so much, been obedient unto Death, made his Soul an Offering for Sin, and obtained Eternal Redemption by his Blood; yet there was no Necessity that any one Sinner should [Page 90] have Pardon and Life; no Certainty, that any one would be Pardoned and Saved: Christ left this altogether uncertain, and not to be determined but by Mans Free­will. After Christ had finished the Work of Redemption, as all might have been Saved, so all might have been Damned; There was no Value, Efficacy, Merit or Satisfaction, in Christs Death or Obedi­ence, to make more sure Work: It was left at uncertainty, as it were at hap hazard, whether Salvation or Damnation should carry it; and Free-will alone must have the honour to determine it. Christ, they say, procured Grevincov. in Ames. Coron. p. 142. by his Death a Power to de­stroy Unbelievers: So that he no more Purchased Salvation than Dam­nation; he is, by Vertue of his Death and Obedience, no more a Redeemer than a Destroyer of Mankind: Whether he should prove a Saviour of any, or a De­stroyer of all, is left to the arbitrement of Free-will. There was, they say, Idem. no other Necessity, nor Advantage, nor Value, in the Death of Christ, but what might have been perfectly salved, though all the Redeemed had Perished Eternally.

They declare for an Universal Redemp­tion, and that equally extended to all and every one, and so would seem to magni­fie it more than others: Yet indeed it is no other Redemption of all, but such as is very well consistent with the Damna­tion of all and every one. Christ loved them all, and washed them from their Sins in his own Blood; yet for all that, every one of them might have been Damn­ed. Though they say, he Died and shed his Blood for the whole World; yet there's no Value, Efficacy or Merit, in the Death of Christ, in the Blood of God, to secure Pardon and Salvation, or any saving Ad­vantage, to any one Person in the World. All might have Perished, for any thing he had effected by the Work of Redemp­tion; and all had Perished certainly, if he had procured no more for them, than the Doctrine of Free-will can admit of; not one of them can ever come to Hea­ven, if Christ did not procure more for them, and more effectually, than their Do­ctrine will suffer them to acknowledge, or give him any thanks for.

3. If he did not purchase Pardon and Life certainly for any, nor Faith and Ho­liness, or other such necessary requisites [Page 92] thereto, what then did he Procure? Why, he Procured, they say, a Covenant or Promise, that all should have Pardon and Life, if they would Believe and Obey him.

But if, antecedently to Christs under­taking, the Lord had declared his willing­ness to save such as Believe and Obey, there was no need of such a Promise; and so Christ procured a needless thing, or nothing.

Or, if he did not purchase the Conditi­ons of this Covenant, ( viz. Grace to Be­lieve and Obey) unless it was in the Pow­er of their own Wills, without Christ, to Perform the Conditions; still he Pro­cured for them as good as nothing.

But if it were otherwise, yet those who would have us to ascribe to the Death and Obedience of Christ nothing but this, would not have us Obliged to ascribe to it either Satisfaction or Merit. No Satis­faction, unless it be to his Fathers Will, not to his Justice in this sense. The Obe­dience and Death of Christ was so fully satisfying, so very acceptable to his Fa­thers Will, he was so well pleased with it, that hereupon he entred into this Co­venant. There was no need of other Sa­tisfaction [Page 93] than this; it was enough, if he did Merit it; sufficient, if his Righteous­ness did deserve such a Promise for us.

Nay, there was no need of Merit: For, as the Lord was so well pleased with Abra­ham's Faith and Obedience, as for his sake he vouchsafed his Posterity many Favours, though the Patriarch did not merit so much; so the Lord might be so well pleased with the Obedience and Sufferings of Christ, as for his sake to make such a Promise, without any Merit obliging him to it. Thus way is made, to strip Re­demption both of Satisfaction and Merit, without which it is, it can be no Re­demption indeed; the Name may be re­tained, but the Thing denyed; all necessi­ty of it, and all advantage by it too, but what is left to the arbitrement of Free­will.

(19.) It is inconsistent with the Perfecti­ons and Attributes of God; with his Mer­cy, Power, Wisdom, Truth and Faith­fulness, with his Soveraignty and Govern­ment of the World, and other Divine Excellencies. But, that I may not stay too long on this Subject, let me insist on­ly on these mentioned.

1. It Defaces the Mercy of God, and [Page 94] makes it in effect no Mercy. They pre­tend indeed to represent God under such a Notion as will indear him, and render him lovely to the World, upon the ac­count of his Mercy and Goodness, the Ex­tensiveness and Universality; but when their Pretensions are strictly and imparti­ally examined, they prove quite of ano­ther tendency: That Mercy which they ascribe to God, is without an Object, or without Effect, or without Grace; a Mer­cy which is not an Honour to him, nor an Indearment of him to others.

1. It is a Mercy without an Object; a Mercy not for any certain Person, but for Qualities, which are no Objects of Mer­cy: A Mercy for some, when it appears not who they are, or whether there will be any such. A Mercy for no Body, which pretends to be for all and every one, when it is not for any one. This is their antecedent Mercy, whereby they pre­tend that he loves all that Believe and Obey, before he knows who they are, and is uncertain whether ever any such will be. It speaks a respect to those Qualities, but no Love or good Will for any particular Person.

2. It is a Mercy without Effect: They [Page 95] ascribe to him a Will of Universal Sal­vation; when they discern it can be no other than a meer Velleity, an incompleat Intention, a weak ineffectual Desire, a faint and fruitless Wishing of such gene­ral Happiness, when he knows it will never be effected, and is resolved not to take the course to effect it. This is such a Mercy, as justles out and clashes with his other Perfections, and is inconsistent with his Knowledge, Power, Sincerity, Wis­dom, Blessedness, and Mercy it self in the true Notion of it.

With his Knowledge; for who will desire and design that, which he knows will never be effected? With his Power; for who will not effect that, which he really intends and designs, if he be able? With his Sincerity; for what Ingenuous Person will pretend to desire and design that which he never means to bring a­bout? With his Wisdom; for who will Propose to himself an End, and never in­tend the Means, which are proper, and alone sufficient to obtain it? With his Blessedness; for to fall short continually of what one desires and intends, is an Unhappiness: With the Nature of Divine Mercy and Goodness; for that is not real [Page 96] goodness, which does no good, or not the good it makes shew of. That is not sa­ving Mercy indeed, which leaves the Ob­jects of it miserable, when it can relieve them; that wishes them well, but lets them perish eternally. But that which they ascribe to God, is such a Mercy, as can well digest the everlasting Misery of all Mankind: Such a Love, such a Good­ness, as could be satisfied, if not one Per­son in the World should be Saved.

They decry the Doctrine of their Op­posers, as that which straitens the Mercy of God, and confines it to a few; whereas indeed it makes Salvation sure to very many. But by their Principles, for any Mercy there is in God, all Men may be Damned; nay, which is more, no Man can be Saved. By all the Mercy they ascribe to God, no Man can escape Dam­nation; all being left to the arbitrement and indifferency of Mans corrupt and de­generate Will; which, without other help than Mercy in their way provides, will certainly ruine them Eternally. Mercy, they say, will Save all that Believe, and none else: But this Mercy intends not to work sa­ving Faith in any; there is no Decree for that, it must be left to Mans Will; and [Page 97] if that be not better to him herein than the Mercy of God, he must unavoidably perish. All must be Damned, unless Free­will help them by its own Power, with­out any effectual Assistance that Mercy prepared for them from Eternity.

3. It is a Mercy without Grace: A Mer­cy which is not free and gracious, which will not express it self to any, but such as are Worthy, such as have some Merit, or some Motive to Oblige him to be mer­ciful. And being a Mercy that is not free and gracious, whatever Mercy of this Na­ture they ascribe to him, we can never be saved by Grace.

Nay, since it is not Grace, it is not Mercy indeed; no Mercy that the Lord will own, or Sinners can have any advan­tage by: It is Affection of their own, not that Divine Excellency which he glories in, and glorifies upon lost Sin­ners: For that which saves Sinners is free Mercy, and free Mercy is nothing but Grace. So that if we be saved without Grace, we are saved without Mercy too, that which is so indeed; and if they have no Salvation for Sinners, but that which is without Grace and free Mercy, they leave them none at all.

That they admit of no free Mercy, no Grace in God for Sinners, appears, in that they make his first Purpose of Love (the Decree, which comprizes all the Mercy he had from Eternity for particu­lar Persons) to have its rise from Faith or Works foreseen. He foresees, that when it is left to the Free-will, to the choice of all; these will of themselves, without Divine determining Power, Believe and Love him; others will not; and therefore he will Love, and purposes to Save these, and not others: And so he loves them not freely, but because they Oblige him: He Loves them, i. e. He Purposes to Save them, because they Love him first. Thus that which God foresees in Man, is the Condition of the Mercy and Favour he intends; and such a Condition, as is in­deed the Cause, the Motive, and in the ancient sense of the Word, the Merit of his Favour and Mercy: And so they leave no free Mercy in God for Sinners; and Sinners being capable of no Mercy at all, but what is free, they leave in him no Mercy at all for them. This is, in the Apostles sense, Gal. 5. 4. to fall from Grace, to deny, to renounce all Grace, all free Mercy of God which the Gospel disco­vers. [Page 99] The Doctrine of Free-will obliges them to disclaim all the Mercy of God, by which any Sinner can be saved.

2. This destroys the Prescience of God: Though they be concerned to maintain this, as well as we, and pretend to do it; yet their Doctrine is utterly inconsistent with it, and makes it impossible for him to foreknow certainly any thing that de­pends upon Mans Will: And so bereaves him of the certain foreknowledge of those things, which are of greatest moment and consequence, both to God and Man. For example.

He cannot certainly foresee, whether any will have the Gospel; the Preaching of it depends on Mans Will. And so, whether any will use the Light of Nature well; whether any will have moral Grace, any rational Advice or Excitement by the Word: Nor whether any will Repent and Believe, whether any will be Justified or Sanctified, whether any will Persevere to the end, whether any one will be Saved, nor whether any would be Redeemed; whether Christ would be put to Death, or any thing else, to which the concur­rence of Mans Will is necessary. This is plain, because by their Principles, the Will [Page 100] of Man is always indifferent to act or not to act; and so before, and until it act, it cannot but be uncertain whether it will act or not: (Nothing can make it certain, no Decree, no Act of God, with­out destroying its liberty;) And being un­certain, it cannot be certainly foreknown.

All that ever I could hear in Answer to this, was only, that Gods Knowledge is Infinite: And though we cannot com­prehend, how that which is uncertain can be certainly known; yet an Infinite Un­derstanding can reach it, and have the certain Knowledge of that which is Un­certain.

But this makes it more evidently im­possible: For the more perfect any Know­ledge is, the farther it is from Error and Mistake. So Infinite Knowledge must be farthest of all from erring; but to know that as certain, which is not certain, is not to Know, but to Err; not to appre­hend things as they are, but to mistake and misapprehend them, to have false and erroneous apprehensions of them. As they state the Freedom of the Will, God can have no certain foreknowledge of those things, without false and erroneous Con­ceptions thereof. They leave him nothing [Page 101] here but Conjectures, or nothing but Mi­stakes and Error.

3. It Impeaches the Truth and Faith­fulness of God; overthrows the Truth and Certainty of his Word, in all the parts of it; leaves no certainty of his Truth and Faithfulness in Prophecies, Promises, Threat­nings, Assertions, contained in Scripture. It cannot be certain, by their Principles, that the Prophecies will be accomplished, the Promises fulfilled, or the Threatnings executed; and so it must be uncertain, whether they are true or false: There is no certainty that they will prove true, they may as well prove false. The same must be said of many Assertions too; there is no Necessity, no Certainty, that they will prove true, v. g. Can. 1. 4. Jer. 31. 18. Lam. 5. 21.

By this Doctrine, there can be no Ne­cessity, that they will turn, whatever Course the Lord take to turn them; or that they will run after him, what Course so­ever he take to draw them: And so those Assertions are not Necessarily true, but may prove false; and so may those, and the like to those, Psal. 119. 33, 34. This is manifest also in those Predictions and Promises, where the Concurrence of Mans [Page 102] Will is requisite: For as they state its Freedom, there can be no Certainty, which way it will incline and determine it self, whether with the Word, and according to the tenor of the Prediction, or against it. Nor will they allow, that God can make sure of it, or take any Course that will so determine it, that the accomplish­ment of his Word shall not be defeated. For when he has done what he can to incline it that way which his Word re­quires, that it may prove true; yet it is, and must be left free to incline the other way, and make his Word prove false. Let us clear this by some instances, in each of those parts of the Word, where­in the Truth and Faithfulness of God is (if any where) eminently concerned. There is an ancient Prophecy, of the Call­ing of the Gentiles, Gen. 9. 27. God shall perswade Japhet, i. e. the Gentiles who descended from him, and they shall joyn themselves to the People of God. Now by the Doctrine of Free-will, the Lord is to do nothing that can make it certain, that Japhet's Posterity shall comply herewith: He is only to Propose it to them by the Preaching of the Gospel, and leave thei [...] Wills in an Indifferency, to yield hereto▪ [Page 103] or not to yield. So that it must be a meer Contingency, whether this Prophe­cy would be accomplished or no, if it might prove true, so it might prove false. The same may be said of those Expressi­ons, Joh. 10. 16. Act. 28. 28. Joh. 12. 32. The Truth and Faithfulness of God in these and other Prophecies is evidently exposed, past all security their Principles can possibly give.

So it is likewise in the Promises and the Covenant of Grace, styled Everlasting; everlasting Truth and Faithfulness being ingaged for the Performance of it, Jer. 32. 39, 40. Ezek. 36. 26, 27. Every Clause of this may prove false, and not be ful­filled to any one Person in the World: For, with them, the Lord does nothing which will certainly change the Hearts of Men, but only offers Arguments to move them to renew their own Hearts; and so leaves it to the arbitrement of their own Wills, whether ever the Pro­mise shall take effect or not. Now, if it were possible, that it should prove true, that Man should make himself a New Heart; yet it is more likely that it should prove false, because Mans corrupt Will, to which it is left, is more inclined to make [Page 104] it false than true. Take it at the best, to make the Truth of God in the ever­lasting Covenant to depend on Mans Will, supposing it indifferent, is bad enough: For if it be indifferent whether God shall be True or no, it must be indifferent whe­ther he be God or no.

Thus it will be, not only as to the Promises made to us, but also those which are made to Christ, Isa. 49. 6, 7. & 53. 10. & 55. 5. Psal. 2. 8. & 72. 8, 9, 10, 11. Jer. 23. 5, 6. These and the like may all prove false: Mans Will, to which it is left, may so carry it, and this unavoida­bly, that not one of them shall be made good. Nor will they allow the Lord to take any course with Mans Will, or have any such influence on it, as will be sure to prevent this, or make it any way cer­tain, that his Truth herein shall not fail: He must not determine the Will that way which is necessary to secure his Truth in performing his Promises. Nor in the Threatning neither, Rev. 17. 16, 17. Whatever be said of Gods putting it into their Hearts; yet they will not have us imagine, that the Lord will effectually de­termine their Wills to this; but these must be left free and indifferent, either [Page 105] to Love or Hate the Whore; either to do what is foretold, or not to do it; to make it true, or to make it false.

Now if these parts of the Word of God may prove false, or if they be not certainly true, all the rest will be suspect­ed, the Truth and Certainty of all the Scripture is overthrown: If the Truth or Faithfulness of God may fail us here, where can we be sure of it? The glory of this Divine Perfection is uttetly defaced. The Truth and Faithfulness of God is the ground of all Divine Faith. We believe God, because he is infallibly True, and what he says cannot prove false: But it may prove false by their Doctrine, and so the ground of all Christian, of all Divine Faith is quite razed, and the Foundation of all Religion is hereby undermined, yea quite blown up.

4. It destroys the Government of God, as to the greatest Concerns of the World. By their Hypothesis, the Will of Man is not, cannot be ruled by him: He must not touch it immediately; it is a thing so Sacred, that a touch, even of God▪ may violate it. He must not Inspire it with any new Quality, nor Move it by any real Influence, but only make his Ad­dresses [Page 106] to it at a distance, by proposing an Object, and offering Motives and Ar­guments: And if this will not do, (as it does not, nor alone ever can do, in the Concerns of Salvation,) he must leave it to it self, to do what it list. Now that which is left to do as it list, is not Ru­led, it is not under Government.

They will have the Lord to treat it as an Orator, not as a Soveraign Ruler. The Will (with them) seems to have a So­veraignty exempted from the Soveraignty of God; not subordinate to it, if not a­bove it; not subjected to the Soveraign Government of God, further than to do what it list.

Hereby God is excluded from the Go­vernment of the World. Men are go­verned by their Wills, that is the Ruling, the Commanding Faculty; therefore if the Will be not under his Government, Men will not be under it, nor the rest of the World, so far as it is governed by Men. If he Dispose not of that which orders the rest, what is there left at his Disposal? All the Affairs of the World, which depend upon humane Conduct, will be governed more by the Will of Man, than by the Will, Power, and Pro­vidence [Page 107] of God: By the Will of Man independently, as if he were God; but by the Lord of Heaven and Earth only Precariously, and at the Pleasure of Mans Will, as if he were a Subject, an Under­ling, an inferior Creature.

5. It denyes the Almighty Power of God, will not admit him to be Omnipotent, and his Power Infinite: It is not Infinite, if it be bounded and limited; yet Mans Will bounds and limits the Divine Power. By their Principles, the Lord can no way deal with the Will, but so that it may resist him, and render all his Actings and Operations on it ineffectual: He can­not prevail with it in any thing so far, but that it may at once stand out and repell his Motions, render every Divine Attempt upon it succesless: When he has done all that can be done by the Power of his Grace, the Will may be too hard for him; it must be always left to do what it list. He cannot Save a Man, how much soever he intends or desires it, un­less it be the Wills Pleasure: Nor can he take any Course to make the Will plea­sed with it. He can neither so Change the Faculty, nor so represent the Object, but the Will may still reject it. He can­not [Page 108] work Faith in him, nor bring him to Repentance, nor Create Holiness in his Heart; nor can he Continue him in a state of Holiness, unless it please the Will to submit; nor can he bring it to sub­mit so, but that it may refuse, when all is done that his Grace can do. He can make no particular Decrees concerning Man, that are Positive and Peremptory, because he cannot master Mans Will: His Purposes must be Conditional and Respe­ctive to Free-will▪ He cannot make good his own Word, not verifie what he As­serts, nor accomplish his own Prophecies, nor perform his Promises, if Mans Will stand in his way: Nor can he clear his way of it in any Method, but what the Will of Man may defeat. He cannot Ac­complish his Desires and Intentions, if Mans Will resist him, and can never put the Will out of a Capacity of resisting and opposing, while it is a Will. It is essential to the Will, to be always able to resist; and if they stand not to this, they yield all: Psal. 135. 6. No, must they say, there are innumerable which God cannot do, unless Man pleases: Phil. 3. ult. Christ has a Power, whereby he can subdue all things, &c. No, must they [Page 109] say, the things wherein he is most con­cerned of all other in this World, the Wills of Men, he cannot subdue to him­self. Prov. 21. 1. No, must they say, nei­ther the Hearts of Kings, nor of any other Men, are thus in the Lords hands: What­ever he does to turn the Current of them, they may run in the old Channel, and keep their own Course for all that: It is not whithersoever he will that they turn, but whithersoever they will, they run, for all his turning.

(20.) It Idolizes Mans Will, makes it in divers respects equal with, or above him.

It seems to subject God, and make him an Underling to Mans Will; and that in respect of his Will, his Word, his Grace, his Design. Some of these are apparent by what is already said: Let me only in­sist on one particular. It makes God de­pendant on the Will of Man, even for his Glory; where it is most intolerable for th [...] Majesty of Heaven to be depend­ant, and most inconsistent with his Infi­nite Perfection and Happiness. The Lord in all the Operations of his Grace, leaves the Will indifferent either to comply or resist. This leaves it to the Determi­nation [Page 110] and Arbitrement of Mans Will, whether God shall have the Glory of that, by which he designs to make him­self most glorious. It must be in the Power of Mans Will to defeat God there, where he intends most of all to glorifie himself; to spoil and deface the glory of his Grace and Love, where the Riches thereof are most displayed: And this in the greatest and most signal Instances of it, and where each Person in the God­head are most eminently concerned.

Whatever Decree or Purpose of Love and Grace the Lord had from Eternity, to Save lost Sinners, it must be at the Determination of Mans Will, whether any one shall be saved or freed from Misery. After the Work of Redemption finished by Christ, it must be at the Pleasure of Mans Will, whether any one shall be actually Redeemed. After the Spirit of Grace has done what can be done, for changing the Hearts, and renewing the Natures of Sinners; yet not one [...]Scan [...] them shall be Changed or Sanctified, u [...]ss they list.

So that, unless Man will, when he is left indifferent, to will or not to will, electing Grace, redeeming Grace, renew­ing [Page 111] Grace, shall be of no effect, shall ne­ver arrive at what it tends to. And if it be rendered of none effect, it is rendered inglorious, it is defeated, defaced, and the glory of it turned into shame. But so it must be, if Man will; all the Grace of God must be in vain, and all the Glory of it vanish.

Thus is God evidently made dependant on Mans Will, even for his Glory, that of his Grace; and he will as soon be sub­jected to the Will of Man in any thing, in all things, as the greatest Concerns of his Glory.

The Grace of God, where it should ap­pear in its greatest lustre, and was de­signed for the greatest Honour of Father, Son, and Spirit; must wait as a Hand­maid on Mans degenerate Will, and be ordered at its Arbitrement, and stand to its Pleasure, whether it shall come to any thing or nothing; whether it shall have any Glory or none.

Let them believe it who can, I can never believe that the Doctrine is of God, which offers such an intolerable Indignity to him: If there were no other Argu­ment against it, this seems enough to me. The

[Page 112]IV. Fourth Head I propounded, was to give an account of the Objections they make, and the Prejudices they have against the Doctrine of Grace; and to shew, the worst they can Object against it is as chargeable upon the Doctrine of Free­will. So that their imbracing it seems to proceed from neglect of Impartial Consideration, and some want of the Ex­ercise of that Reason which they so much magnifie. That uses not to be counted a rational and considerate Invention, which serves not the turn for which it was devised, but runs them into the same difficulties which they seek to avoid. Let us see briefly in two or three of the chief Instances, whether this be not the Case here.

1. They Charge us with making God the Author of Sin: (Tilenus says this was the Reason that turned him off to the Remonstrants.) We disclaim and abhorr it, and Condemn those who assert any such thing. They say, it is the Conse­quence of our Doctrine, which will have things so ordered by the Decrees and Pro­vidence of God, that Sin is thereby un­avoidable. We say, if God be made the Author of Sin on this account, their own [Page 113] Doctrine is to be charged with making him so, by as good Consequence. And so they must acknowledge that they wrong us, or else condemn themselves and their own Principles.

That they are as liable to this Charge, if it be just, does thus appear. He that puts Men in those Circumstances, where­in he foresees that they will certainly sin, orders things so, that Sin becomes un­avoidable: But by their Doctrine, the Lord decrees to place Men, and by his Providence disposes them in those Cir­cumstances, wherein he foresees they will certainly sin; e. g. The Lord foresaw, that if Adam was Created so and so, and set in such Circumstances, he would cer­tainly Sin and Fall by it: Yet foreseeing this, the Lord decreed to Create him so, and dispose of him in such Circumstances, and actually did it. He foresees, that if Peter be put in those Circumstances where­in he was found in the High-Priest's Hall, he would certainly deny his Master: But he Decreed thus to dispose of him, and by his Providence actually did it. This is the plain Import of their Doctrine con­cerning a Conditional Foreknowledge in God, as will be evident to any that un­derstand [Page 114] it. It was an Invention of the Jesuits the last Age, to make good their Doctrine of Free-will and Moral Grace, and to avoid the supposed Inconvenien­ces of the opposite Doctrine; and is com­monly imbraced by those who agree with the Jesuits in their Opinion about the Power of the Will: But a very impru­dent and unhappy Device it was, since it involves them in those very Absurdi­ties, which it was devised to avoid.

2. They charge our Doctrine, as make­ing God unmerciful, because he gives not to the greatest part of Mankind, that Grace which is necessary to Salvation: Where­as we deny not that God gives that Grace which they count sufficient; we grant he gives all that Grace which is necessary by their Doctrine, even to Reprobates. But we say, their Doctrine, how much soever it triumphs in advancing and ex­tending Gods Love to Mankind; yet it makes him far more unmerciful, in that it will not have God to vouchsafe that Grace which is necessary or sufficient for Salvation, special Grace, to any at all. Meer swasive Grace, which leaves it to the choice of Mans unrenewed Will, whe­ther it will turn to God or no, which [Page 115] they say is all that God vouchsafes to any, did never alone, can never of it self Save any Man: And so they will have, not only some, but all Men to Pe­rish, for any Grace that God gives them. Whatever Ostentation it makes of magni­fying Divine Mercy, yet what Doctrine can be more unmerciful, than that which leaves all Men to be Damned, unless their Free-will do something more for them than the Grace of God.

3. They say, we Impeach the Sincerity of God, when he by his Word calls such as Perish to Repentance, that they may be Saved; and yet has Decreed no [...] to give them Repentance, but to Damn them: So that it is certain, (while those Invi­tations and Offers are made in the Word) that they shall not Repent and be Saved. This, they say, makes the Word and the Ministry of it Delusive, and no better than Simulation, making show of that to Sin­ners which is never intended, and which it is impossible they should have.

The ground of this Charge, is a cer­tainty that such shall never Repent and be Saved: But their own Principles make this no less certain: For they say, God foresees from Eternity that such will ne­ver [Page 116] Repent, and so shall never be Saved: And what he foresees (his Foreknowledge being Certain and Infallible) will as cer­tainly come to pass, and is as impossible not to be, as that which he Decrees. Nay, they say, that the Lord, upon his Foreknowledge that such would not Re­pent, did Decree from Eternity to Damn them, and never Decreed to give them Repentance, nor any Grace or Aid that would effectually bring them to Repent­ance; no, nor any, but what he certain­ly foresaw would be ineffectual. So that here also they must either Justifie our Doctrine, as to this Charge, or Condemn their own.

4. They say, our Doctrine makes God Ʋnjust and Cruel, in Exacting that from Men which they are not able to do; and Condemning them for not doing that which he gives them not strength to do v. g. for requiring Sinners to Believe and Turn to God, and Condemning them for not complying with him herein; when he knows they cannot do it of themselves and when he gives them no Grace to im­power them for it. They make large Harangues on this Subject, tending to render their Opposites odious; and se [...] [Page 117] them off with such Similitudes and Illu­strations as make Impression on weak Minds, which are more apt to be taken with Words, than to weigh and consider things. Whereas after all, the plain truth is, there is no Doctrine that I know of more chargeable with this, than their own. For it is very evident in Scripture, and in the Nature of the thing, that their swasive Grace does not give Sinners suffi­cient Power to Believe and Turn to God; it cannot subdue the Corruption of the Heart opposing this: It pretends not to give any new spiritual Principle of Life or Strength for these effects; it leaves the Will in its natural Impotency and Cor­ruption, to do as it list. And therefore, since, by their Doctrine, he gives Sinners no more Power but this, and yet requires them to Believe and Turn to Christ, and Condemns them for not doing it; he Condemns them for want of that which he gives not sufficient Power to do.

Can any one imagine, who will not offer plain Violence to a multitude of Ex­pressions in Scripture, that meer Moral Swasion, which does not so much as move the Will out of its indifferent Posture, can Quicken those that are dead in Sins [Page 118] and Trespasses? can take away the Heart of Stone, and give Hearts of Flesh; or write his Laws in them; or make those Hearts that are desperately wicked, to become holy and heavenly? Can form new Creatures of the old Man, and make old things pass away, and all things be­come new? Can give Strength and Life to those who can do nothing, are with­out Strength and Life?

He that cannot believe this, in opposi­tion to an hundred of such Passages in the Word of God, must believe that their Doctrine, concerning Free-will and Moral Grace, makes God to Condemn more than any, for not doing that which he gives them not Power to do.

5. They say, We destroy the Liberty of the Will, by bringing it under a necessity of inclining one way, and not leaving it indifferent to incline the other, or to suspend its Acts, e. g. When God intends to Convert a Sinner, and puts forth the Power of his Grace for this purpose, it is necessary that the Will incline no other way than his Grace moves it.

But if this destroy the Liberty of the Will, their own Doctrine overthrows it: For they Teach, that God, from Eterni­ty, [Page 119] before any Act of his Will, foresaw which way every Mans Will, in such and such Circumstances, would incline. He foreknows certainly and infallibly, that in those Circumstances it will incline this way, and not the other. Now if he know that certainly, it must be Certain and of Necessity: For to know that as cer­tain, which is not certain, is not to know but to mistake, to apprehend a thing otherwise than it is. And if the Will might or could incline otherwise than he foresaw, his Foreknowledge would not be Infallible: For that excludes, not only actual Error, but a possibility of it.

If then it be true from Eternity, that the Will must incline this one way, it is not indifferent to incline that way or ano­ther; and so its indifferency, its freedom from a necessity to incline but this one way, is gone by their own Principles. They must either grant, that the Liber­ty of Mans Will is consistent with a Ne­cessity of inclining one way and not ano­ther, or yield that their own Doctrine destroys its liberty.

Whether they will be so ingenuous or no, it is very certain that some Necessi­ty may very well consist with Liberty in [Page 120] the freest Agents. God is Necessarily good, and yet Freely: So are the Saints and Angels in Heaven; they cannot but be Holy, and act holily, yet they are so, and do so freely. The Devils and Damned in Hell are necessarily Wicked, they cannot be other; and yet they are so, and act Wickedness freely: Wicked men on Earth, that are habitually and judicially harden­ed in Wickedness, they are necessarily evil, and cannot but sin, and yet they sin free­ly. So that this Conceit, though it be a fundamental Doctrine with them, and the main weight of their Cause lyes on it, that Liberty is inconsistent with Ne­cessity; is against the sense, reason and experience of Heaven, and Earth, and Hell.

Obj. If Salvation be of Grace, it must be a free Gift, offered and given freely: But we see in Scripture (and the Promi­ses of saving Mercy make it plain) that it is offered, and so given upon Terms and Conditions required of those that will be Saved. The Promises are many of of them expresly Conditional; and so will the Covenant of Grace be, of which the Promises are but several Articles. Now that which is not Given or Promi­sed, [Page 121] but upon Terms and Conditions, seems not to be given or offered freely; the more Conditional, the less Free and Gra­cious.

Answ. The Offers of Salvation, the Pro­mises of saving Mercies, notwithstanding any Conditionalness in them, any Terms annexed, are free and gracious, upon a ma­nifold account: for in many cases, Con­ditions or Terms do not hinder a Grant or Promise from being free.

1. If the Condition be so only in re­spect of outward Form and Manner of Proposal, not properly and really: For then it seems to be a Condition, but is not strictly. So here: Gospel Promises are Conditional [...], not [...], quoad externam formam & modum proponen­di, not propriè & quoad rigorem: as to man­ner of proposal they seem Conditional; but examin them by the Laws of Condi­tions, and they will be found rather Ab­solute. If the denomination must be ta­ken à majori, or à potiori, if the Number or Weight will carry it, bring them to the Test, examin why they should be counted Conditional or Absolute; and it will be found, that in more respects, and for more weighty Considerations they ought [Page 122] to pass for Absolute, rather than Condi­tional, in the Pelagian sense; so no rea­son to question their Freeness.

2. If the Condition be our Duty. If such, as when we perform it we do nothing but what we owe, and the Promiser owes nothing to us for doing it; then, if he promise any thing, he promises freely. It is promissio indebita pro opere debito, that is gratuita. That which is not ex debito is gratuito. These are opposed, Rom. 4. 4. That which is no way due, if promised, is freely promised. Now all that is re­quired, is our Duty, we owe it; and for all that we can doe, God owes us no­thing. Debitum non redit in Deum: Prae­mium non est divini juris naturalis; his Nature engages him not to reward his Creatures. That which he does this way is of free Will. Deus ad praemium nemini est obligatus. Rom. 11. 35. Eternal Life had not been due to Adam, if he had per­formed perfect Obedience; it was only the Promise intitled him to it. If not due to him, much less to us; he might vouch­safe no more Reward to us than to the inferiour Creatures. And since nothing is due from God, what he bestowes or pro­mises, he does it freely. When we have [Page 123] done all, we are but unprofitable Ser­vants, we have but done our Duty, we can Chalenge no Reward: There is none due, therefore when he Promises any, he does it freely. The Condition being but our Duty, makes nothing due; no more than Reward is due to him that pays his Debts.

3. If the Condition be Inconsiderable, compared with what is promised: Sup­pose one should Promise his Tenant a Thousand Pound per annum, if he will pay him a Pepper Corn; would any say, this Promise is not free, because of such a Condition? Whatever the Lord requires of us, is no more than this, compared with what he Promises to us. Believing and active Obeying is not so much as Suffering; yet if the Lord should have made Sufferings the Conditions of Pro­mises, they would have been free in this respect: Because the greatest Sufferings (such as Paul's, and those in the Primi­tive times) would be small and inconside­rable, compared with the Glory Promi­sed, Rom. 8. 18. 2 Cor. 4. 17. Now if the hardest Conditions be so inconsiderable, what are the smallest? even nothing com­pared with what is Promised, Grace, Glo­ry, God himself, &c.

[Page 124]4. If the Condition be not so much for the Advantage of the Promiser, as to make us capable of the thing Promised. That which is not so much for the Ad­vantage of the Promiser, as for his to whom the Promise is made, must needs be from free bounty; the Promiser here­in more respecting the good of another, than his own: What can be more of Grace? Or if the Favour promised be not feisable, without that which is pro­pounded as a Condition of the Proposal: If it be necessary to make Capable of that which is Promised, then it is rather a Direction how the Favour may be attain­ed, than a strict Condition. It does no way Prejudice the freedom of the Pro­mise, but rather renders it more Free and Gracious. But such are many of those things, which the Lord prescribes as Con­ditions, they are more for our Advan­tage than his; he expects, he gets little or nothing by our Performance of them, Psal. 16. 2. Job. 22. 2. Job 35. 7, 8. What Advantage has the Lord by our Mourn­ing, Sense of our lost Condition, Appre­hensions of the burden of Sin, Hunger­ings and Thirstings after Righteousness? Why then does he annex these to the [Page 125] Promises; but because without them we are not capable of those Mercies which he is willing to bestow? Christ comes to seek and Save what was lost, Mat. 18. 11. Luk. 19. 10. Why is this Condition add­ed? those that are lost, sensible of their lost Condition; but because Sinners are not capable of this Favour till then? they will not be found of Christ, 'till they feel themselves lost. Why Hunger and Thirst before be Satisfied? Matth. 5. Because the Soul is till then closed, shut up, not capable of Sa­tisfaction, Psal. 81. 10. How can it be filled, except first opened? so himself, Mat. 11. 28. Why Labour? because not till then capable of rest. When the Lord offers a Favour, and withall shews how it may be attained; he deals more Free­ly, more Graciously, than if he should barely Propound it, and leave us to our own selves to find out the Way and Means how it might be effected.

Conditions of this Nature are so far from making Promises less free, as they are rendered hereby more Gracious: There is as much of Free Grace in prescribing these, as in Promising to them, because without these the Promise might be of no effect, the Favour not feisable, the Sinner not capable of it.

[Page 126]5. If the Condition be easie, no Cost, Charge, Trouble or Hazard attend it: He that Offers upon such easie Terms, Offers freely. If one should Promise to Entertain his Friend, if he will but come to him; or Visit him, if he will but let him in; or Advance him, if he be will­ing; or give him a Jewel that will en­rich him for ever, if he will but receive it; or supply him with all his Heart can desire, if he will but ask it: Would any Man have the Face to say, such Offers were not Free and Gracious? are they not as Free as Heart can desire? If a Man might chuse his own Terms, could he Imagine, Invent, any more Easie?

Such are the Promises of the Gospel: The Lord will Entertain Sinners, if they will but Come, Isa. 55. 1. Ease, Mat. 11. Satisfie, Joh. 6. 35. Or as if it were too much for Sinners to Come to him; he will Come to them, if they but Open to him, Rev. 3. 20. Give himself, the Pearl of great Price, if but Receive him: Marry, if but Consent to him, Joh. 1. 12. Mat. 22. 2, 3. Give Eternal Life, if but Will­ing, Rev. 22. 17. Give all Heart can de­sire, if but Ask it, Joh. 16. 23. Open the Treasures of Grace and Glory, if but Knock, [Page 127] Mat. 7. 7. Be your Friend for ever, if but Love him, Joh. 14. 21. Bear the Weight and Burden of all your Cares, if but lay them on him, Psal. 55. 22. Never fail you in Life or Death, if but Trust him, Psal. 34. 22. Psal. 125. 1.

O! how Free are these Offers! how Ea­sie these Terms! It would be intolerable Impudence, to desire these upon any Terms more Free. Would you have Christ your Friend, and not Love him? Marry you without your Consent? or take Care for you, and not Trust him? who can be so unreasonable? The Con­ditions here are of such a Nature, that it is even all one as if they were absolute: No Promise of this Nature can be more Free, more absolute; for the Nature of what is Promised, will admit of no other Terms, they are as free as can be. Can Christ Come to you, if you will not let him in? or Entertain you, if not Come to him? or Give himself, if not receive him? Nor need you say, these are not easie, we cannot do them of our selves. Christ prevents this; they are easie, if he Concur and Assist; and he engages to assist all those who have Interest in the Promises, all that Come to him.

[Page 128]6. If the Condition be Promised: He that annexes a Condition to a Promise, and withall Promises to give that Con­dition, does all one as if he Promised ab­solutely. Suppose Hiram had Promised Solomon Cedars to build the Temple, up­on Condition they were Cut down; if Hiram had also Promised to Cut them down, his former Promise had hereby be­come absolute. Or suppose Pharaoh had Promised Jacob that he should come and be Entertained in Egypt, upon Condition that Wagons were provided to carry him; if Pharaoh should also send him Wagons (as he did by Joseph, Gen. 45. 19.) it is all one, as if the former Promise had been absolute.

So it is here: And this is enough, if there were no more, to make this Truth evident, and to prove it unanswerably. That which the Lord seems to make a Condition in one place, he Promises ab­solutely in another: For the Promises of Regeneration are absolute: The Lord free­ly engages himself to implant all Spiritu­al Graces and Holy Affections in the Soul. Now to these, either in habit or exer­cise, are all the Promises made, which we count Conditional. So that the Con­dition [Page 129] of them being absolutely Promised, they are in effect absolute; e. g. The Lord Promises Salvation to Perseverance, Mat. 24. 15. He promises Perseverance to Faith, Psal. 125. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 5. and Faith is Pro­mised absolutely, Ezek. 36. 26. A new Heart is a believing Heart; so that the two former, their Conditions being Pro­mised, are absolute. He promises Life to those that have Christ, 1 Joh. 5. 1 [...]. He promises Christ to those that Fear him, Mal. 4. 2. and he promises Fear absolute­ly, Jer. 32. 40. So wherever you find any thing annexed to a Promise, as a Con­dition, in another place you may find it, either expresly or implicitly Promised: And therefore all the Promises are, in this respect, as good as Absolute; and if Ab­solute, no reason to question their Free­dom.

If the Terms or Conditions be such, as it is not possible in the Nature of the thing, that the Mercy offered should be effected without them; then the offers of Saving Mercies are as Free and Gracious as can be, as there is any possibility they should be; and no more can be desired.

Let me clear this in one of those Terms, which is comprehensive of all the [Page 130] rest. It is required of those, who will partake of saving Mercies, that they leave sin, forsake their evil ways, Prov. 28. 13. Isa. 55. 7. 2 Tim. 2. 19.

This is the Summe of all Conditions; and whatever is required in other Terms, is included in this, or may be resolved into it. Now it is not possible, that sa­ving Mercies should otherwise be had, that they should be received or enjoyed but upon these Terms; not only because the Lord would have it so, but because the Nature of the thing does so require it, that it is not otherwise feisible.

For Sin is our Impotency: Now can we possibly have Strength in the inner Man, if we will not part with our Weak­ness? Sin is our Deformity, that which renders our Souls loathsome and ugly in the Eye of God. Now can our Souls be made Lovely, if we will not part with that which is our Defilement and Ugliness? Can we be made Clean, if we will not part with our Leprosie? Sin is our Enmity against God, therein it consists; Now can we possibly be Reconciled, if we will not lay aside our Enmity? Sin is the Poverty of the Soul, that which robs and spoils, and utterly impoverishes the Soul: Now can [Page 131] you be made Rich, if you will not part with your Poverty? Sin is the Souls restraint, the Dungeon where it is imprisoned, the Bonds and Fetters wherewith it is loaden: Now is it possible you should have Li­berty, if you will not leave your Dunge­on, and part with your Fetters? Sin is the Wound, the Mortal Disease of the Soul; and can you be healed, if you will not part with your Disease? Sin is your Misery; can you be Happy, if not part with Misery? Happiness consists in the Enjoyment of God; but adhering [...]o Sin, and the Enjoyment of a Holy God, are utterly inconsistent: And can you be Happy without Happiness, or by retain­ing that which is inconsistent with it?

So that you see, there is an utter im­possibility that Salvation should be had, but upon these Terms: There is an In­consistency, a plain Contradiction, in any other Supposition. It is an Impossibility, not only to us, but to the Almighty; and therefore the Terms are as free and gra­cious, as possibly could be; Omnipotent Grace it self could not make them more gracious.

To clear this, several things are to be observed▪

[Page 132](1.) The first Blessings of the Covenant are Promised absolutely; Effectual Calling, Faith, Repentance, Conversion, Regenera­tion, are Offered, are Promised without any Conditions. The Promises of these Mercies are absolute, Ezek. 36. 26. Jer. 32. 39, 40. Under the Notions of a New Heart, a New Spirit, putting his Spirit, his Fear within them, &c. the Blessings fore­mentioned, called the first Grace, are Pro­mised absolutely; and so are the same things in other terms, Jer. 31. 31, 32, 33. repeated by the Apostle, Heb. 8. 8. There can be no Instance given in Scripture, where these things are Promised upon Condi­tion. Indeed if they were promised upon Condition, Grace would be Promised to something Natural: For this being the first Grace, there can be nothing before it to be the Condition of it, but what is Natural; and to make that which is Na­tural the Condition of Grace, is gross Pe­lagianism. If there were any Conditions of those first gracious Favours, they must be those things, which are Previous to, and Preparations for them, viz. Diligent Attendance on the Word and Means of Grace, Convictions of Sin, legal Sorrow [Page 133] for it, Sense of Wrath and Misery, which often go before Conversion, and are count­ed Dispositions or Preparations for Faith. But these previous Works are not Condi­tions of Conversion, or the other Blessings included therein, nor are they promised upon such Terms: For the Condition is never separated from the Favour promised to it; where the Condition is performed, the Promise is always accomplished: But these preparatory Acts have been in ma­ny, who were never truly Converted and Regenerated, never had a New Heart and a New Spirit given them: So that these Preparations are no Conditions of Faith or Regeneration; much less is there any thing of congruous Merit in them. Our Divines, that insist on such Preparations for Christ, decryed the Conceit of Merit, though in the lowest form. This Merit of the Pa­pists inferrs a Dueness of the thing so deserved; a Dueness in Congruity, thô not in Justice: And what is due from the Lord any way, he will infallibly be­stow: But there may be these previous Dispositions, where Faith is never given. There is not so much as a Conditional Connexion between such Preparations and those Blessings; they are Promised ab­solutely [Page 134] without any Condition expressed or implied.

(2.) The subsequent Blessings of the Covenant, those that follow the first, are in some sense Conditional, and so Offered and Promised in a Conditional Form, and yet are never the less Gracious. There are Terms and Conditions, taking the word Conditions in a latitude, as com­prizing Qualifications, Adjuncts, and ne­cessary Antecedents, which do no way derogate from Grace; neither detract from its Freeness, nor obscure, but rather illu­strate it, Rom. 10. 8, 9, 10. Rev. 3. Upon such Terms are Justification, Adoption, Salvation offered, and not Offered but upon Terms, and yet most Freely and Graciously, Rom. 3. Freely by his Grace, and yet through Faith, no otherwise but upon such Terms, Joh. 3. 18. Upon the same Terms we are Adopted, Joh. 1. 12. We are saved by Grace, but through Faith, Eph. 2. And not only Faith, but Holiness of Heart and Life, and Perseve­rance therein, are the Terms upon which Salvation is Promised, Mat. 5. Heb. 12. 14. Rev. 2. 10. Mark 13. 13. It is all one as if they were expressed Conditio­nally. [Page 135] This is not because the Lord makes a Conditional Bargain with us, leaving the Condition to our own Wills, being uncertain whether it will be made good or no: But the reason is, because Divine Wisdom has made a Connexion betwixt these Blessings, so that they shall never be separated; one of them shall not be had without the other: No Justi­fication without Faith, no Salvation with­out Holiness, no Glory without Perseve­rance: And has Constituted an Order amongst them, so that one of them must go before the other: We must Believe before we be Justified, and be Holy be­fore we can see God. And has appoint­ed one of them to be the Means or way to obtain the other: We are Justi [...]ied by Faith, we are Created unto good Works, that we should walk in them. Acts of Holy Obedience are the way wherein we must walk to Salvation: So that here is an Antecedence of some Duty, and that necessary by Divine Appointment and Command, and this tending to obtain a Favour freely offered.

And by this we may understand what a Condition is, in a sense very innocent, and no way injurious to Grace. It is an [Page 136] Antecedent necessarily required, as the way to attain or arrive at what is Pro­mised.

And in this Sense it must not be deni­ed that there are Conditions in the Go­spel, and its Promises; unless we will deny that there are Duties necessary to Salvation, and made necessary by Divine Command: For such a Condition is no­thing but something of a Command joyn­ed with a Promise in a conditional Form; and Divine Commands must be no more questioned, when they are joyned with Promises, than when they are delivered apart. He Commands all to Repent, and he promises Pardon: Put this Promise and that Command together, and it be­comes a Conditional Promise; if you Repent, you shall have Pardon, or as the Apostle delivers it, 1 Joh. 1. 9. If we Con­fess our Sins, he is faithful and just to for­give us our Sins, and to cleanse us from all our Ʋnrighteousness.

(3.) There are Conditions that are In­jurious to Grace, and Inconsistent with it: None such are annexed to any Promise of the Gospel, none such must be admit­ted by those who will reserve to the [Page 137] Lord the Honour of his Grace, or have our Salvation intirely ascribed to it.

1. Meritorious Conditions, when the Con­dition is presumed to deserve what is Pro­mised: There is no such Condition of Salvation as this, but in the proud Fancies of Presumptuous Sinners. For, 1. There must be a Disproportion between that which is procured, and the Condition that deserves it: It is of Favour, not of Merit, if the promised Blessing exceed the worth of the Condition. To make this plain; suppose the worth of a days Work be twelve Pence, a Man Promises ano­ther a thousand Crowns for a days La­bour; it cannot in any reason be imagin­ed that his days Labour deserves so much; if he receive so much, he has it of Fa­vour not of Merit. Now the Dispropor­tion is far greater betwixt Salvation, and all that is required of us in order there­to: Sufferings for Christ are more consi­derable on this account than holy Act­ings; but all the Sufferings of this Life, such as those of the Apostle and the Pri­mitive Christians, bear not the sleightest Proportion to the Glory Promised, Rom. 8. 18. there is no Proportion betwixt [Page 138] them; the Glory offered does infinitely exceed them; it is the Eternal Injoy­ment of God himself; and between that which is finite and infinite there is no Proportion, 2 Cor. 4. 17. If Glory were Promised on these Terms, as it seems to be, 2 Tim. 2. 12. yet Suffering would be far from Deserving the Crown; there is no correspondent worth in them to so vast a Crown. Merit quite excludes Grace; for tha [...] which is deserved is due in Justice, it is a just Debt; but that which is of Debt, is not, cannot be of Grace, if the Apostle understood these things, Rom. 4. 4. He makes a plain Opposition between Grace and Debt. And therefore, if by the Performance of any Condition we can deserve Salvation, it will be of Debt, and we must expunge the Text, and con­clude we are not saved by Grace.

2. Natural Conditions, such as may be Performed by the Power of Nature, with­out the concurrence of Omnipotent or Special Grace. All that is required to Salvation, under the notion of Conditi­ons, must be of this Nature, by that Doctrine which will have nothing ne­cessary for the Performance thereof, but [Page 139] Suasive Grace: For this gives no Power sufficient for Performance; and therefore if there be any Performance, it must be by the Power of Nature. Their Grace gives not the Power, but supposes it in the Will already: All that it can justly pretend to, is to Excite what it sinds, not what it gives. It does not, it can­not subdue the Wills Corruptions, natural and contracted, which is its Moral Impo­tency: And that which leaves it Impo­tent, as it found it, gives it not Power; it plants no Principle of Spiritual Life and Strength in the Will, but disclaims these expresly. And as it does not give the Power, so neither does it give the Act; it determins not the Will, nor causes it to Act; but leaves it to incline as it list, when there is no Principle in it to incline it towards that which is Saving, and Corruption enough to incline it the other way.

The Case standing thus, if the Will comply with the Terms of Salvation, it must be by its own Power, since it has no more from above: And then, in Op­position to the Text, Salvation will be of our selves, by our own Strength, not by Grace; nor will Grace which is Saving, [Page 140] be the Gift of God: For if he give nei­ther the Power, nor the Act, who can imagine how it can be counted his Gift? They may as well say, we are Saved by the Power of Nature, as that the Condi­tions of Salvation are to be Performed by such a Power, without any other Assist­ance of Grace.

3. No Legal Conditions, no Conditions performed by us, nor our Righteousness. The Righteousness by which we are justi­fied, the Righteousness by which we have Pardon, or by which we have Right and Title to Salvation. Neither Faith, nor sincere Obedience, are required of us for this end; nor can they, when Perform­ed by us, be any such Righteousness. It is Christ, and he alone, that is our Righteousness; it is by his Righteousness, and that alone, that we are Justified: It was he, who by his Obedience to Death satisfied Divine Justice, and pro­cured Title to Eternal Life. It is not pretended that any Performances of ours do or can satisfie Divine Justice; nor can it with more reason be pretended, that our Performances give us Title to Life. Those that say he did not both, may as [Page 141] well say he did neither. Our Perform­ances may evidence our Title, but they give it not, nor are the Ground of it. It is Christ, his Righteousness, that is the only Foundation of our Title, Rom. 10. 4. The End of the Law, i. e. of the Covenant of Works, was, that Man, by the Righteousness of Perfect Obedience, might have Title to Eternal Life; this being rendered Impossible in Mans fallen and sinful State, how shall the End of the Law, which the Lord aimed at, be at­tained? Why, Christ attains the End of the Law by his Righteousness, giving Ti­tle to Life to those who believe.

Faith and Obedience are not our Righ­teousness; now, as Perfect Obedience was to be in the State of Innocency, they are not in the stead of it, they have not the Vertue and Office of it, they are not Conditions of the Covenant of Grace, as that was of the Covenant of Works; i. e. They are not the Righteousness by which we are Justified, and have Title to Life: It is Christ that is the End of the Law for Righteousness to those Purpo­ses; and to ascribe that to our Performan­ces, which is proper to him, is injurious to the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And how is it of Grace upon these Terms? how is the Covenant of the Go­spel more Gracious than that of Works? It cannot be said that it is more Graci­ous, because it requires and accepts less, sincere Obedience being not so much as that which is Perfect: For sincere Obedi­ence may be counted as much to Man in his present State of Sin and Impotency, as Perfect Obedience in the State of In­nocency and Perfection. But the tran­scendent Graciousness of the Gospel Cove­nant, consists not in requiring less Righ­teousness to give Title to Life, than was due at first; but in not requiring a Per­fect Righteousness of us Personally for that end, but providing and accepting that of a surety, according to that of the Apostle, Rom. 8. 3, 4. The Law could not give us Life, because being weaken­ed by sin, we could not Perform the Perfect Righteousness which is required; but what the Law could not do, Christ has done, giving us Title to Life, fulfill­ing the Righteousness of it in our behalf. But does not the Scripture declare, that our Obedience is the Obedience which gives Title to Life? Rev. 22. 14. I An­swer, There is a double Right, Jus: ad [Page 143] rem, and Jus in re; a Right of Title, and a Right of Possession: Holy Obedi­ence gives us not the Title, but leads us into Possession. It gives not the Title, for that we have in Justification, Rom. 5. 18. Now Obedience is after Justificati­on, and so cannot give that which is before it self, and does not give that which is given already. But it leads us into Possession, it is the Way by which we enter; so the Word immediately sol­lowing will have it understood. When the Apostle had declared that we are Saved by Grace, Eph. 2. 8. and so ex­cluded Works, Vers. 9. that we may count this to be our Title to Salvation, yet he adds, Ver. 10. We are his work­manship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. These are the Ways wherein we must walk, if we will arrive at Salvation; but they are not our Title to it, as Perfect Obedience would have been in the first Covenant, the Law of Works; they are not such Conditions, they are not our Righteous­ness, (upon which our Title is Found­ed) as that was designed to be: They are not Legal Conditions.

4. Obliging Conditions. There is no per­formance of ours, that can of it self oblige the Lord to perform any Promise; the reason, because it is defective, and falls short of what is required: And amongst men, he that promises upon Conditions is not obliged, if the Terms be not duely ob­served. The Law of our Creation requi­red of us perfect Performance; and no less than perfect Obedience to God will be due from us, while we are Creatures. It is true, Man now wants Power to answer his Ingagements, but that was through his own fault; and the Lord does not lose his due, because Man sins against him. Now being defective, and falling short of his Duty, it is sinfull; and that which is sinfull, is to be punished, not rewarded, as such it has not a Moral fitness for pro­mised Reward; that which is sinfull, brings the performer under the Curse, Gal. 3. it deserves eternal Death, Rom. 6. and so cannot oblige the Lord to reward it.

Upon this account, the best performance of any supposed Condition, is so far of it self from making any promised Blessing to be due in point of Justice, that it can­not make it due in point of Faithfulness. [Page 145] That which needs Pardon cannot of it self make any thing due to us, but Punish­ment. Our Faith, our Repentance, our Obedience, being sinfully defective, can­not as such make any thing due [...]o us, but Punishment; and so cannot oblige the Lord to perform the Promises, to justifie, pardon, or save us: For that which obli­ges the Lord to execute the Threatning, cannot oblige him to fulfill his Promise. How then is the Lord obliged? How come the Promises to be accomplished? Why, not upon the account of our defective Per­formances, but for Christs sake, and so through Grace.

Christ has satisfied for the sins of his People, for the sinful defects of their Per­formances: Upon his account they are par­doned and accepted, and so for his sake they are rewarded, and the Promises performed. Thus, as 2 Cor. 1. 20. all the Promises are performed with unvariable Faithfulness; he engages the Faithfulness of God to fulfill all the Promises, when as our Performances, considered in themselves, do oblige him and would rather engage him against it.

5. Ʋncertain Conditions. When it is un­certain whether the Condition will be per­formed [Page 146] or no. Such Conditions have place amongst Men, and Men only, such as suspend the Affair in eventum incertum, and leave it at uncertainty as to the Event; it is uncertain whether the Condition will be performed or not, and so uncertain whe­ther the Promise will be performed. The Reason why Man proposes such Conditi­ons, is his Weakness and Imperfection, for want of Power or Foresight. He has not the Wills of others in his Power, can­not make them comply with his Will, and so cannot tell what they will do. So that it is also for want of certain Fore­knowledge or Foresight, when we will not bestow a Favour on another, but upon Terms. If we were certain that the Terms would be observed, we would promise Ab­solutely; if we were certain the Condition would not be observed, we would not pro­mise at all; but because we are uncer­tain, therefore we promise Conditionally. Now the Ground of these Conditions being Weakness, they must in no wise be ascri­bed unto God. It derogates from his in­finite Wisdom, and infallible Foreknow­ledge; it derogates from his Power and Providence over mans Will and human Affairs: it derogates from the Efficacy of [Page 147] his Grace, as tho this could not determin mans Will, or prevail with it certainly and infallibly to comply with his Propo­sals; but must leave it indifferent, and in suspense, and so at uncertainty, whe­ther it will comply or not comply with what he propounds.

• (1.) Acknowledge this Grace? How? By getting high Apprehensions of it, and en­tertaining frequent Thoughts about it. Say, How precious are thy Thoughts to me, O God! how great is the summ of them! Let the Meditation hereof be sweeter than the Honey and the Honey-combe.
• (2.) Let this beget suitable Affections, Love, Joy, Admiration, Delight, both in the Fountain and Streams of Free-Grace.
• (3.) Let it be a Motive to all Holiness and Obedience. Let the Grace of God, the Love of Christ constrain you to an Obse­quiousness to him, and Affectionateness to one another. If God so loved us, how ought we love one another!
• (4.) Let it strengthen our Faith in Af­flictions, [Page 148] and Temptations, from the Pow­er of Sin and sense of unworthiness.
• (5.) Hold it forth to others: Take all Occasions to magnifie it; oppose every Practice and Opinion that obscures the Lustre of it. Use it as a Touch-stone, to discover what Persons are most holy, what Tenents are most true, even those which most illustrate Free Grace.
• (6.) By glorying in the Lord; using it to make us and keep us humble. We had nothing to merit, nothing to move, for Salvation: what we are, or have, we are by, and have from this Grace. Let no man boast, Rom. 9. If you have any laudable, amiable Accomplishments, give the glory to God.

• 1. Consider, how thankfull Gods ancient People were for Temporal Salvation; what sweet Strains of gratefull Hearts appear in those Songs of Praises which we find Re­corded usually after any Deliverance. And have we not much more reason to be thankfull for Eternal Salvation?
• [Page 149]2. Consider what a comprehensive Blessing Salvation is, and take an Estimate there­of, by comparing it with the Temporal Deliverances of the Israelites: Those pro­ceeded from a Common ordinary Love, these from a Peculiar distinguishing Affe­ction. Their Deliverances were effected, not without the Hazard of of their Per­sons; our Salvation is Effected only by the Blood of Christ: The Issue of theirs was not much more than Civil Tran­quility, sitting under their Vines and Figg­trees; the Issue of ours is Grace, Glory, Joy, and those things that Eye has not seen, nor Ear heard, nor have entred into the Heart of Man to conceive.
• 3. This is the End of all God does in the World, even to Glorifie himself; as Rom. 9. in showing the Exceeding Riches of his Grace, in his Kindness towards us through Jesus Christ: Now we have no other way to Glorifie him, but by an active affectionate Acknowledgment of his Grace.
• 4. This is the Employment of gloryfied Spirits in Heaven, to Praise, Admire and [Page 150] Adore this Grace: This is the Subject of those Seraphick Praises. The thoughts of this stupendious Love transports Angels and Men into an eternal Rapture. This is the way to be in Heaven upon Earth, to anticipate Glory, to enter into our Masters Joy before we come at it: Nay, this is the way by which our Masters Joy enters into us. Never are our Souls filled with such Ravishing Pleasures, as when we are taken up with such heavenly Employ­ment. Never do we rise higher above the World, than when these Thoughts wing our Souls: Nay, sometimes they will steal into Heaven, as the Israelites Spyes into Canaan, and bring from thence into our Souls, Grapes, and Figgs, and Pomgra­nates, some taste of what we shall fully enjoy in the Land of Promise.

Salvation is a comprehensive Blessing; it includes the Eternal Love of God; that is its Foundation: Which Eternal Love broke forht in time into such high Ex­pressions, as to send his Son, to live mise­rably, and dye shamefully for us, and in­terest us in all the Merits of his Death. This was the Purchase of Salvation, and it is the Conclusion; as thô unwilling those whom he loves so well, should be [Page 151] at such a distance from him, takes us to Himself, to see his Glory, to Bathe our selves in that Stream of Bliss, in those Rivers of Pleasure that are at his Right Hand. This is the Accomplishment of Sal­vation; sure this deserves to be Acknow­ledged.